Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye

hay festival nairobi 2009

A collaboration between StoryMoja and Hay Festival

A festival that brings together the best Kenyan and international storytellers, writers, environmentalists and readers to celebrate the sharing of stories and ideas.

StoryMoja Hay Festival Nairobi is a collaboration between three partners which builds on the success already achieved by StoryMoja and Kwani in Kenya and Hay Festival’s success elsewhere in the world over the last 21 years.

StoryMoja Hay Festival Nairobi is a three-day celebration that will provide opportunities for the meeting of minds and sharing of ideas between storytellers and the public. The Festival will act as a platform for readers, writers, listeners and thinkers and provide exposure to some of the world’s leading names in literature as well as some up-and-coming authors. It will also provide space for the culmination of the active participation ‘Kenya Get Reading Campaign’ workshops for students, which StoryMoja have cultivated alongside universities and schools over the last two years.

StoryMoja Hay Festival Nairobi offers an opportunity to bring much-needed focus on the importance of literacy in improving people’s day-to-day lives, helping improve social cohesion and informed decision-making in an atmosphere of relaxed enjoyment.


Education Programme

• 20% of all tickets will be made available free to students to attend the events at the Festival.

• 5–10 fiction books will be donated to each of the 450 eco-schools in Kenya.

• Education links will be developed with Room to Read, KOEE, Book Aid International and Oxfam.

• A series of workshops will be made available to students for two-day masterclasses with some of the world’s leading storytellers, journalists and authors. There will also be further post-festival mentoring and manuscript development workshops.

• In 2009 the first internship from Kenya to Hay was initiated with a three-month placement for an existing StoryMoja employee to join the Hay Festival team.

• Storytelling Competition winners from 100 schools/universities will work with leading mentors on honing their performances.

• The Spelling Bee finals will also happen at the Festival and all participants will enter free.

• A StoryMoja literary prize will be awarded to the best East African books written for children in 2008, judged by young readers.