15–18 September 2011

StoryMoja, Nairobi

Storymoja Hay Festival is a collaboration between Kenyan publishers Storymoja and Hay Festival, to create a forum for sharing great literature, poetry and ideas in the country’s capital, Nairobi.

Next year’s dates are: 14–16 September 2012.

Under the sun: writers, travellers, storytellers, artists and innovators from around the world gathered in Kenya for the third annual Storymoja Hay Festival to share ideas and stories in the heart of Kenya’s capital city. ‘Kenya does have its problems, but that doesn’t mean culture has to die here. Culture could be just the thing that saves us’... Read more.

‘It’s almost a magical experience to be here. One of the values of art is that it enables us to see each other more clearly.’ – Ben Okri

2011 Photos Listen to events from this year
Hay Festival StoryMoja

Read all about it: interviews and features about the festival were published in the Nairobi Hayly special festival editions of the UK’s Daily Telegraph, available at the site, free, every day.

‘There was something of the literary salon about the atmosphere. The Kenyan audience hung on the words of the other speakers as attentively as if they had found an oasis in the desert.’ The Telegraph

‘Being at the festival 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

Follow us on Twitter for festival updates @hayfestival and @storymoja

  • 2011 Artists

    2011 Artists

    Participants in the 2011 festival included Ben Okri, Peter Moore, Hari Kunzru, Njeri Wangari, Dayo Forster, Keguro Macharia, James Campbell, Nick Hennessey, Ngwatilo, Abdelkader Benali and Neil Shah among many others.

    Browse full programme

  • Hay Festival and Oxfam

    We have been working together for over 3 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 our GROW campaign at: www.oxfam.org.uk/grow

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2011 highlights

  • Ben Okri
  • Stian Hole
  • Peter Moore
  • Edwin Mokaya
  • Hari Kunzru
  • Beth Lisick
  • Arline Klatte
  • Mshai Mwangola
  • Jane Bussmann
  • Njeri Wangari
  • and many more...

news

  • ‘Culture could be just the thing that saves us’ at StoryMoja 2011

  • “It’s almost a magical experience to be here. One of the values of art is that it enables us to see each other more clearly.” Ben Okri

  • “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
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ABOUT US

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.

The Sound Castle is our new late night music club.

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 - from high tech workshops on making music and films to an awesome line-up of cutting-edge writers, Hf2 is a mind-blowing experience for 13-plus.

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.