Moraa Gitaa

Moraa Gitaa is a Kenyan novelist, Peace Studies and Conflict Management researcher, cultural advocate and arts curator. She is the author of the YA novels Let’s Talk About This, The Kigango Oracle, Hila and The Shark Attack among other works. Moraa was a 2017 apexart Fellow.[1] Moraa was one of the Kenya Chapter winners of the 2014 Burt Award for African Literature[2] and shortlisted for the 2010 Penguin Prize for African Writing[3] and also won First Prize in the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) Adult Fiction literary award in 2008 (Kenya's National Book Week Literary Award.)[4]

Moraa Gitaa
NationalityKenyan
Alma materAfrica Nazarene University, Nairobi - BA in Peace and Conflict Studies

Career

Moraa Gitaa works and writes at intersections of gender, social justice, arts for positive social change, feminist politics, sustainable livelihoods and social enterprise. She has worked for more than 15 years with various organizations among them the British Council, Aga Khan Foundation and PEN Kenya Centre across a broad spectrum

Moraa Gitaa's debut full-length Adult Fiction novel, Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold, centres on two characters: Lavina, a Kenyan African woman living with HIV, and Giorgio, an Italian man whom Lavina meets on vacation in Malindi on Kenya’s coast.[5] Moraa's sophomore novel is Shifting Sands.[6]

Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold has been critiqued by scholars as a re-reading and re-writing of gender in times of HIV.[7] Her work on Shifting Sands received a positive review in the Nairobi Star from Khainga O' Okwemba, who said: "Here is a writer with the patience, perseverance and discipline needed to create vivid characters. Here is a contemporary Kenyan writer capable of bedazzling and cajoling the reader with a skillfully written and scintillating narrative.... Shifting Sands is a must read for literature students."[8] Gitaa's stories focus on the vulnerable, underserved, marginal and marginalized members of contemporary African society.[9]

Moraa’s non-fiction and short stories have been featured in: Harvard University’s Transition Magazine, [10] PEN International’s PEN OutWrite,, [11] IFLAC’S Peace & Anti-Terror Anthology, Spotlight Publisher’s Waiting and Other Stories, Creatives Garage Anthology, several Author Me Anthologies, several G21 The World’s Magazine Anthologies including ‘Africa Fresh! New Voices from the First Continent’, The African Magazine, and Hekaya Initiative[12]

In 2014 James Murua's Literary Blog [13]included Moraa in a list of 39 top African novelists under the age of 40 writing in English

Works
  • Let’s Talk About This. Worlds Unknown Publishers, Kenya/USA, 2020
  • The Kigango Oracle. Worlds Unknown Publishers , Kenya/USA, 2020
  • Hila. Storymoja Publishers, Kenya, 2015
  • The Shark Attack. Moran Publishers, Kenya, 2014
  • The Con Artist. Kenya Literature Bureau, Kenya, 2014
  • Shifting Sands. Nsemia Publishers, Kenya/Canada, 2012
  • Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold. Nsemia Publishers, Kenya/Canada, 2008
  • Hekaya Arts Initiative Issue 01 / Libros Agency: Anthology - Jihadi Bride and Other Stories, Kenya/USA, 2018
  • Transition Magazine Issue 121: Theme - Childhood - Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, 2016
  • Creatives Garage: Femmolution Volume 01, Kenya, 2016
  • Waiting and Other Stories: Spotlight Publishers, Kenya, 2016
  • PEN OutWrite - Obscure Oddities: LGBTQI Issue Published by PEN International, 2015
  • G2’s Anthology - Africa Fresh! New Voices from the First Continent, 2010

References
  1. "apexart :: International Fellow :: Moraa Gitaa". apexart.org. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  2. "Announcement of Nominees for the 2014 BURT Award For African Literature Competition". Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  3. "Shortlists for the Inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing". Penguin SA. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  4. "National Book Development Council of Kenya Literary Award (2003?-2010?)". African Book Awards Database. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  5. Gitaa, Moraa (2008). Crucible for silver and furnace for gold (1st ed.). [Oakville, Ont.]: Nsemia Publishers. p. 276. ISBN 0981036228.
  6. Gitaa, Moraa (2012). Shifting Sands. Nsemia Inc. ISBN 978-1-926906-04-1.
  7. "A Critique of Friendship across Race and Tribe in two Kenyan Novels". Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  8. "Moraa Gitaa Is a Must-Read Author". The Star. Nairobi. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  9. Evan, Mwangi (5 March 2006). "Kenya: Books: Kenyan Writers Open Debate On New Corruption Frontiers". Daily Nation. Retrieved 14 August 2013 – via All Africa.
  10. "Transtition Magazine, Issue 121". Archived from the original on 2017-11-04. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  11. "Pen Outwrite, Obscure Oddities".
  12. "Hekaya Initiative, Jihadi Brides".
  13. "James Murua's Literary Blog, 39 Top English Language African Novelists under 40".
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