Kinna

Back at Kinna Reads, and with updates.

Last week I attended a workshop facilitated by researchers of the pathways of women’s empowerment project.  We were taught to write ‘stories of change’ inspired by non-fictional accounts (from case studies and interviews) of women’s lives.  The group was led by Dr Mona Ali and the Egyptian writer Sahar El-Mougy who both run a project called “So Said the Storyteller” in which young women from Palestine, Egypt and Sudan come together to rewrite conventional folktales with a feminist edge.  The workshop was a lot of fun and quite empowering.  I even got to write my first short, short story which was not as bad as I had feared!  To top it off I received these five books:

Inner Courtyard by the Urdu writer Khadija Mastur:  the book was given to me by fellow participant and translator Neelam Hussain.

Two novels – In Dependence by Sarah Ladipo Manyinka and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin  and two children’s books – Eno’s Story and Mayowa and the Masquerades. All published by Cassava Republic and given to me by its dynamic founder and editor Bibi Bakare-Yusuf.   I shall write more about Cassava Republic in the coming weeks.

On the reading front, I finished three books:
The Dwarf by Per Lagerkvist
Counselor Ayres’ Memorial by Machado de Assis
So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba

Finally, an introduction.  As most of you know, I blog from Ghana, West Africa.  And while there are lots of bloggers in Ghana, I was beginning to feel  that I was the sole book blogger in my country.  Well, it turns out I’m not alone afterall :).   Fellow Ghanaian book blogger Nana Fredua-Agyeman of ImageNations dropped by Kinna Reads last week .  Here’s hoping to find more excellent book bloggers in Ghana.

So I’d glad to be back.  A lot of happenings in the community.  Savidge Reads announced a new book prize.  And Amy Reads  issued this warning about the upcoming week.   Sounds very interesting, lots of debate ahead then.

15 comments

  1. The Secret Lives book looks good. Its nice to read of someone actually enjoying a work-related workshop – my memories of most of the ones I attended are less than uplifting.

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  2. I didn’t realize you blogged from Ghana. It’s wonderful to have readers all over the world blogging about a common theme. Your workshop sounds fascinating.

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  4. Welcome back, Kinna! That workshop sounds absolutely fascinating. And that’s great that you finally found another book blogger from Ghana! I recently discovered that a blogger I’d been reading for some time was also Portuguese, and I was ridiculously excited.

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  5. Welcome back. That sounds like a very interesting workshop and well done for writing a short story. It’s nice to find bloggers in your own country! I know a few here in The Netherlands, but there doesn’t seem to be a community like we have internationally. Iris (who commented above) is one of the Dutch bloggers.

    Looking forward to see your reviews!

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  7. The workshop sounds like a whole lot of fun! Thanks for pointing out another Ghanaian blogger for us (and I see another above, how exciting!).

    I’ve heard a lot about The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s wives so I am really interested to hear your thoughts on it. The other books all sound great too. I’m looking forward to hearing more about that publisher.

    And thank you for the mention 🙂 It might be quiet, but I’m a little nervous about a few of the days, so hopefully will be some good debate yes!

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    • You are welcome, Iris. I’m hoping to read and review it in the week that you feature Nigerian works, just to join you :). I have lots to read before then though.

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  9. I’m glad you’re back! The workshop sounds fascinating and I hope you enjoy those books, but I’m sure you will. And it is always nice to find a fellow blogger from your country 🙂

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  10. Welcome back! The workshop sounds very interesting, it would have been great to meet fellow bloggers. And most of all write your first short story, yaaaay! I have heard that The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin is a great read. Waiting for your review!

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    • The workshop was a lot of fun. But I’m glad to be back to this blog especially. I can’t wait to read Lola Shoneyin’s novel. She previously published three collection of poetry and I will feature one of her poems as soon as I can get my hands on any of her poems.

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