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Our fifth festival in Nairobi will take place on
19–22 September 2013

Storymoja Hay Festival Nairobi is a collaboration between Hay Festival and Storymoja Africa. The 2012 festival was our fourth edition, based for the first time in the National Museum of Kenya, and featured writers including Jung Chang, Dinaw Mengestu, Giles Foden, Precious Williams, Billy Kahora, NoViolet Bulawayo, Tony Mochama and many more. Read more...

Read our Hay Festival Writers' blog for their impressions of Storymoja 2012, or watch our short film from the festival. Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland, describes the festival as 'creating important cultural momentum in East Africa.' Read more...

Beyond the line-up of international and local authors, and a packed programme of performance, lies the central purpose of the festival – to promote literacy in Kenya and develop a culture of reading. Read more...

Listen to 2012 events Storymoja 2012 photos
Hay Festival StoryMoja
  • 2011 Artists

    2012 audio library

    Speakers in 2012 included Jung Chang, Lemn Sissay, Dinaw Mengestu, Giles Foden, Precious Williams, Billy Kahora, NoViolet Bulawayo, Tony Mochama and many more. Don't worry if you couldn't make it – many of the events were recorded so you can listen again.


    Listen to 2012 events

  • Hay Festival and Oxfam

    We have been working together for over four years. We know that festival-goers love the Oxfam bookshop at Hay – and we raise lots of money for our work with poorer communities worldwide. Throughout East Africa, including northern Kenya, Oxfam is helping people to grow more food for their families. Find out more about the GROW campaign at: www.oxfam.org.uk/grow

  • Hay Festival Writers' Blog

    Read our Hay Festival Writers' blog for their impressions of The Storymoja Hay Festival 2012. “The weekend was brimming with unstoppable literary madness.” – Beverley Nambozo.


    Read the blog

  • Jung Chang

    The inaugural Wangari Maathai Lecture, honouring the name of Kenya's great Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of The Green Belt Movement, was given by the Chinese author and historian.


    Listen to the lecture in our audio library

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2012 contributors

  • Jung Chang
  • Dinaw Mengestu
  • Giles Foden
  • Precious Williams
  • Billy Kahora
  • Muthoni Garland
  • NoViolet Bulawayo
  • Michael Logan
  • Tony Mochama
  • Chris Lyimo
  • Beverely Nabozo
  • and many more – browse full programme

news

  • “Being at the festival on this third day felt a little like being on a (children’s) ride: every encounter demanded some kind of intellectual or imaginative realignment, a shift of viewpoint.” The Telegraph
  • “The Storymoja Festival is the main thing on my mind – the literary extravaganza that we saw in Nairobi over the past weekend.” Nairobi Living
  • ‘Culture could be just the thing that saves us’ at Storymoja 2011
StoryMoja Festival
Storymoja 2012 Review
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ABOUT US

hay festival

Hay Festival runs for ten days with a packed programme of debates and conversations with poets and scientists, novelists and historians, artists and gardeners, comedians and musicians, film makers and politicians.

hay fever

Hay Fever - our festival for families and children, runs across the ten days of the festival where children have the chance to meet and talk to their favourite writers and take part in workshops to create wonderful memories and develop new skills in imaginative thinking and self expression.

Hf2 is our festival for teenagers - with an awesome line-up featuring the movers and shakers of Young Adult writing, Hf2 is a mind-blowing experience for 13-plus.

hay on earth

We care passionately about our environment. Hay-on-Earth debates the latest thoughts on climate change and environmental awareness.

In 2006 we started the Hay-on-Earth Project to audit, address and change our ecological sustainability.