Hillary NamunyuFrom left to right: Vuyelwa Maluleke (poet from South Africa), Hillary Namunyu, Liyou Libsekal (poet from Ethiopia) at the 2014 StoryMoja Festival.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself. Are you a fulltime writer?

I think the best answer for this question would be that I am into books fulltime; I am a publishing editor, the job that pays my bills. I also earn from writing, but not fiction, so my hopes are rising up with the sun daily.

2. When did you consider yourself a writer? What inspires your writing?

Well, I really can’t recall a specific time I said to myself, hey man, I think you can be a writer. I have been doing this thing since pre-unit, only that a lot has changed in between.

What inspires my writing? The amazing world and everything in it: the people I meet, experiences by myself and those of other people, nature and wildlife, cities, media etc. Just look around and there are thousands of stories. And then there are those night thoughts, most people call them dreams but for me, the best paragraphs come from them.

3. How much impact does your childhood have on your writing?

My childhood has shaped all aspects of my life in unimaginable proportions. Just to mention that I spent a larger part of it in Eastlands, Nairobi. That is the place where all artistic brilliance emanates from; talk of music, talk of sheng, talk of various games. It is full of adventure that you can only forget when dead. So you will find lots of the actions in my stories clearly painting Eastlands the way it was those days, late ‘80s and the ‘90s. I literally relive my childhood.

4. Why did you enter the Golden Baobab prize? Were you surprised that you made the longlist?

I first submitted to Golden Baobab some three of four years ago. Well, I never made the cut. This is my second submission but it is a story I wrote in 2010. It has been in my drafts all those years. So when the announcement was made, and I just chanced on it, I said to myself, why not? I love my story and I was thinking of self-publishing it. I went through it again but changed nothing except some two or three typos. I really don’t know if I was surprised when I was contacted, but I was happy. Golden Baobab are doing a great thing promoting children literature in Africa and I want to be part of that mission.

5. Do you only write for children? If so, why did you make that choice? If not, what else do you write?

As I have noted earlier, I have written a lot of non-fiction. I was also longlisted for the Kwani? My Kenya short story competition around 2009 or 2010, I don’t remember exactly. It was adult fiction with the theme revolving around the violence that followed the disputed 2007 elections. Apart from children’s scripts, I also have a few poems which I think are great. I first attended the Storymoja Hay Festival in 2011 courtesy of a simple poem I wrote that won me a ticket. I am working on two adult short stories at the moment and a few poems which I am looking forward to publish as the poetry bug has finally bitten Nairobi… Hopefully it will extend to the other ends.

6. What are your thoughts on children’s literature growth (or lack of) in Africa? Do you think there are enough children’s stories written by African writers for African children?

If I was to throw this question back to you, with a slight twist like you tell me which titles you read in primary school, I am pretty sure I would count on luck to hear a title by an African and set in Africa. That is why I commend any organization that promotes African literature for children. I think the first book I ever read by an African was No Feast for Kiundu. The late Barbara Kimenye of the Moses series is the most profound writer of children literature in East Africa or further. But there is a huge void to be filled especially for the early teenage group.

 7. Which writer(s) do you admire?

It is a tough question. I am also not sure whether you are asking about writers of children literature or writers in general. Barbara Kimenye definitely set the pace for me and I guess most other writers. Every day you buy a new book and you are wowed all the way. However, I love African writers especially from West Africa. The late Chinua Achebe’s early works are prolific.

8. Do you have a writing schedule? What is your process like?

It is hard for me to keep to a schedule unless it is under duress. The best ideas float in when I am just about to board that matatu, or when the water for cooking ugali has just boiled and I have to switch off the meko, or when I am on my way to visit a friend and I have to abruptly cancel the visit. Sometimes I can write a paragraph, other times I can do two pages at a sitting. Writers and editors are almost synonymous with night runners. Just before I sleep, all ideas I have encountered in the day fuse and I put them down. The darkness of the night is the sunrise of writers in general. For the unmarried, don’t marry a writer because that idea might come when you are just about to do something stupid, and he has to write it down.

9. What advice would you give to a beginner writer?

I want to imagine that a beginner writer is someone who wants to be published for the first time. It is the same old advice; if you are not a reader, you should not write. If you do, it would be like jumping into an ocean when you have never learned how to swim. The field of writing is very unforgiving.

 10. What ambitions do you have for your career?

After my short stories and poems are done, I will consider writing a full length novel or a novella. More children scripts will be coming intermittently. Writing is the only thing in my life that I don’t plan. But I am learning to set timelines.

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From left to right: Vuyelwa Maluleke (poet from South Africa), Hillary Namunyu, Liyou Libsekal (poet from Ethiopia) at the 2014 StoryMoja Festival. 1. Tell us a bit about yourself. Are you a fulltime writer? I think the best answer for this question would be that I am into books fulltime; I...