Award winning author and journalist, Peter Kimani, the spring 2022 Artist in Residence for the department, on Friday, February 11, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. for a reading and Q&A session. Kimani is teaching two courses this semester at Duke University, English 221S.02 “Intro to the Writing of Fiction” and English 421S.01 “Advanced Working in the Writing of Fiction.” Free parking will be available in the Campus Drive parking lot.
Peter Kimani is a leading Kenyan journalist and author. His recent work, Dance of the Jakaranda – a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”– was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the inaugural Big Book Award in the UK. His children’s novel Upside Down received Kenya’s highest literary honor in 2011, the Jomo Kenyatta Prize in Literature. He was one of only three international poets commissioned by National Public Radio to compose and recite a poem to mark Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. Kimani is also an award-winning journalist, rising to senior editor at The Standard. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The New African, Sky News, and the Daily Nation.
Kimani received his formal education in Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where he earned a doctorate in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston in 2014. He has taught at Amherst College, the University of Houston, and is a founding faculty member at Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications in Nairobi.
To learn more about Peter Kimani, visit https://www.petekimani.co.ke/home.html.
*Proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative PCR test required to attend. Duke students/staff can use their DukeCard as proof for entry.
