Binyavanga Wainaina

Binyavanga Wainaina Kenneth ( born January 18, 1971 in Nakuru ) is a Kenyan journalist and writer.

Life and work

Binyavanga Wainaina attended schools in Nakuru, in Thika and Nairobi. In 1991 he went to South Africa and studied commerce at the University of Transkei in the Eastern Cape. He then worked as a freelance writer in Cape Town, including for the Sunday Times. In 2000 he returned to Kenya. There he founded with colleagues in 2003 the literary magazine Kwani? ( Sheng for So what?).

In October 2006, Binyavanga Wainaina wrote the Swiss Sunday newspaper an open letter in which he grappled with cynical remarks of the Swiss Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher, the Africans had described among other things as "lazy".

2006/2007 Wainaina completed a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, where he was sponsored by Union College in Schenectady. In 2008 he was Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Williams College in Massachusetts. In 2009 he took over the management of the Chinua Achebe Center at Bard College in upstate New York.

2014 he announced publicly that he is gay.

Awards

• 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing for the autobiographical short story Discovering Home
• Binyavanga Wainaina 2007 refused admission to the Forum of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum from.

Works

• Beyond the River Yei. Life in the country where sleeping is a disease. With photographs by Sven Torfinn. Kwani Trust, Nairobi 2004, ISBN 9966-9836-3-5.
• With Bill Kahora: Kwani? 4 Kwani Trust, Nairobi 2007, ISBN 978-9966-983-66-4.
• How to write about Africa. Kwani Trust, Nairobi 2008, ISBN 978-9966-7008-2-7.
• One day i will write about this place. Kwani Trust, Nairobi 2012, ISBN 978-9966-1598-1-6 German: One day I will write about this place. Memories. The Wunderhorn, Heidelberg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-88423-427-3.

In German-speaking Binyavanga Wainaina published posts, among other things in time, the Neue Rundschau and cultural exchange. Internationally, he has worked for National Geographic, The Virginia quarterly review, The Georgia review, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kenya.

• Posts in: Cultural Exchange. Journal for international perspectives. Edited by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations. ConBrio, Regensburg 2003, ISSN 0044-2976. A flexible mind. Volume 53, No. 3, 2003, pp. 81-83.
• What you shall only tuuuuun? Volume 56, No. 4, 2006, p 72
• Latte macchiato at Nairobi. Why it sucks, as all want to help Africa. Volume 57, No. 2, 2007, pp. 64-65.

• Posts: Marion Arnold ( eds.): Art in Eastern Africa. Mkuki Na Nyota, Dar es Salaam in 2008, ISBN 978-9987-44913-2. Chapter 10: Wangechi Mutu. The extent of your citizenry. Pp. 174-180.
• Chapter 11: Yoga. Pp. 181-184.