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2019, Berlin, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

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Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

  • Skill Category: Writers
  • Present Address: London, UK
  • Country: Kenya
  • Social media:

Biography

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Owuor studied English at Kenyatta University, before taking an MA in TV/Video development at Reading University. She obtained an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland, Australia. Owuor has worked as a screenwriter and from 2003 to 2005 was the executive director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications worldwide, including Kwani? and McSweeney’s, and her story “The Knife Grinder’s Tale” was made into a short film of the same title, released in 2007. In 2010, along with Binyavanga Wainaina, Owuor participated in the Chinua Achebe Center’s “Pilgrimages” project and travelled to Kinshasa, and intends to produce a book about her experiences. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

Owuor won the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing for her story “Weight of Whispers”, which considers an aristocratic Rwandan refugee in Kenya. The story was originally published in Kwani?, the Kenyan literary magazine set up by Binyavanga Wainaina after he won the Caine Prize the previous year. In 2004, she won the Woman of the year (Arts, Heritage category) for her contributions to the arts in Kenya. In September 2015, her critically acclaimed book Dust was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, and won Kenya’s pre-eminent literary prize, the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature

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