The Struggle to Print: The plight of the writer of fiction in Kenya

Abstract

Every place on earth has a story to tell. It is left up to the humans who inhabit this globe to tell the story of nature from generation to generation. The people of Kenya are writing, and they have been years. Even though Kenya is one of the few places on earth where oral tradition is valued as an area of history, as oral tradition is intertwined with African history, books are an intrinsic part of Kenya's society today. Kenyans are writing fiction now, and are depicting through imaginary stories the very-real state of affairs in their home land. Furthermore, there are several Kenyan writers of fiction struggling to get published by either home-grown publishing houses or foreign satellites of overseas publishing groups. It is a complicated and troubling road to print, but some Kenyans have made it to the bookshelves with their fiction. Many more are still struggling.