Monica Nalyaka WANAMBISI

  • Africa
  • Eastern Africa
  • Kenya
English

Monica Nalyaka WANAMBISI is senior lecturer in the department of literature and linguistics at the University of Nairobi, Kikuyu campus. She earned the M.A. and the Ph.D. in English from Atlanta University. She is a Fulbright scholar at the University of Iowa, with a research project gathering material for a book or series of books for children. She has been collecting children's literature from griots, babysitters, parents, grandparents, and other sources, and would like to produce a series to be published first in English, then in Kiswahili and other Kenyan dialects. Dr. Wanambisi's publications include critical articles on the poetry of Okot p'Bitek, and on the role of women in Africa. She was the 1994-95 recipient of the Research Competition on Gender Issues in Eastern Africa, with a study on The Marginalization of Kenyan Women Literary Writers.

Happening Now

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

  • “I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury.

  • In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

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