FiCool who is a member of Nairobi Garage and are based at Nairobi Garage Kilimani held the first-ever session of its kind dubbed as FiCool Writers Club. The monthly event will be towards attaining FiCool’s mission to empower local writers who will then work with the company to provide content, thus furthering the goal to make Africa a reading continent.
The session featured award-winning novelist Zukiswa Wanner who is a South African journalist and novelist, born in Zambia and now based in Kenya.
During the session Wanner coached on fundamentals of storytelling, using book readings of her works as apt transitory stops before proceeding.
Each writer was also given an assignment and a deadline to string a story together, whereafter submission FiCool editors will select the best and purchase digital rights to run it on FiCool App.
Wanner’s renown works include The Madams (2006) , Behind Every Successful Man (2008), Men of the South (2010), London Cape Town Joburg (2014), 8115:A Prisoner’s Home with Alf Kumalo (2010), Maid in SA: 30 Ways to Leave Your Madam (2010) , Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts (2018) among others.
Since 2006, when she published her first book, Wanner’s works have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literary Awards (SALA) and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
In 2015, she won the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award for London Cape Town Joburg and in 2014 Wanner was named on the Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature.
With plans to have the event on a monthly basis, the next FiCool’s Writers Club session will be in October. To get more details on how you can sign up send an email to christine@ficool.com
More than just entertainment, stories teach, inspire, and call out societal wrongs while praising the good. Stories also provide escapism; a needed path away from the pressure life exerts on our minds. And that isn’t all. Psychology says that stories ignite the part of the brain responsible for imagination and that they can make people more empathetic.
You can also download the FiCool App here to access and read amazing content.