Ep 19: Soma Nami Books founders Muthoni and Wendy are redefining how and who we read in African Literature

In our season's Finale, Njeri is joined by two amazing women; Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge who embody the new face of growing online and offline spaces for contemporary African literature. They are the founders of the Soma Nami bookstore- a book hub and Nairobi's trendiest space that prides itself on having the widest variety of books by African authors.

Njeri visited the Soma Nami bookstore to film this episode on location as she spoke to Muthoni and Wendy on how the hub has become the go-to space for literary enthusiasts hungry to find and read stories that speak to their own experiences as Africans.

Wendy & Muthoni begin by speaking on their transition having begun as a book club, to running an online bookshop, to launching a physical bookstore this year in spite of a pandemic. The duo shares how they fell in love with reading and why having such spaces dedicated to African Literature is so important.

They also speak on the growing Kenyan reading community, why we are seeing such proliferation of writers not just from Africa, but also from Kenya and the diversity in the stories being written. How do they keep the reading community growing and vibrant?

Finally, Njeri, Wendy & Muthoni discuss the recently announced Nobel Prize for Literature and what this means to us and the genre

Follow Njeri Wangari everywhere @Kenyanpoet- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Check out her poetry collection Mines & Mindfields; My spoken words.

Have thoughts, feedback or questions about the episode, email njeriwangari@kenyanpoet.com

The making of this Episode was proudly supported by EUNIC Kenya