Sugarpulp from November 20th to 24th will be in Kenya for a workshop to Kenyan writers on Historical Novel, organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in Nairobi.

Sugarpulp Crew flies to Kenya for “History and Stories”, a literary workshop to Kenyan writers on Historical Novel, organized by the ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUE IN NAIROBI within the framework of the XVII Worldwide Italian Language Week.

The workshop will be in collaboration with the University of Nairobi – Department of Literature, Chronicae, International Festival of the Historical Fiction (Piove di Sacco, Italy) and Sugarpulp.

History & Stories, a literary workshop by Sugarpulp

From the experience of Chronicae, international festival designed and organized by Sugarpulp (some of Chronicae guests: Simon Scarrow, Tim Willocks, Jason Goodwin, Alex Connors, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Matteo Strukul and many more), is born the idea for a workshop on Historical Novel, that aims to offer Kenyan writers new tools for approaching historical narrative.

Francesca Chiesa, Director of Italian Cultural Institute Nairobi:

After attaining independence, many African countries have been trying to erase all traces of colonialism and of their ancient history. For this reason we wanted to organize the workshop “History and Stories”: the knowledge of their own history, that means awareness of their own origins, is a strong value. Learning to tell the story can be an important moment of cultural growth for a community, and supplying the right tools to get it is a primary target for every cultural institution.

Giacomo Brunoro, Sugarpulp President:

It all started from an email that Francesca send me during the 3rd edition of Chronicae, the international festival of historical novel organized by Sugarpulp in Piove di Sacco (Pd, Italy). We then met in Italy last May and we started to work on the planning of the workshop. It is a real honour for us sharing our knowledge and our experience with Kenyan writers. We are willing to start this experience in Nairobi!

Lecturers

Giacomo Brunoro, president of Sugarpulp Cultural Association thath organizes the SugarCon-Sugarpulp Convention, the annual international convention dedicated to books, comics, movies (first edition 2011), and Chronicae,  International Festival of the Historical Fiction (first edition 2014).

Carlo A. Martigli, writer, lecturer, screenwriter and journalist. Among his most recent historical novels: La Congiura dei Potenti (Longanesi), La scelta di Sigmund (Mondadori), L’Apprendista di Michelangelo (Mondadori).

Matteo Ogliari, historian. In 2016 he conducted a research on Nairobi’s electrification process, based on documents stored in the National Archives and McMillan Library.

Alex Nderitu, Kenyan e-novelist, scriptwriter and Internet Technologist. He is a signatory to the PEN Charter.

Ilaria Macconi Heckner, historian and academic.

Each lecturer will deal with a specific theme:

  • the writer’s work and the approach to historical narrative;
  • the role of the historian and the work of document research;
  • how to create and manage a cultural event;
  • how to communicate culture in the social networks era.

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian