PRESS RELEASE: STORYMOJA READ ALOUD BREAKS THE WORLD RECORD!

The Storymoja Read Aloud final official tally has unofficially broken the World Record for Most People Reading Aloud from the Same Text at the Same Time from Different Venues!

The Storymoja Read Aloud held on June 15, 2015 managed to rally together 229,043 children from 1,097 schools across 44 counties. This number does not take into account the number of teachers, volunteers and reading ambassadors who joined up with the children to read aloud from the text of ‘Attack of the Shidas’. [Photos from the June 15 Read Aloud]

The current world record is held by the USA with 223,363 people in 909 venues.

The previous Storymoja Read Aloud Tally for the event held on January 30, 2015 was 160,190 children from 422 schools in 12 counties.

The Storymoja Read Aloud is part of activities held by Storymoja and Start-a-Library to excite children about reading for pleasure.

Start a Library also works to increase access to books by forming or stocking libraries in Primary Schools. This is in reaction to the fact that countrywide, there are more than 20,000 Kenyan primary schools without libraries. That means that only 2% of public schools have libraries!

We work with partners to remedy this situation. Our most recent library partner, the Varkey Foundation has joined hands with us to stock a total of 22 libraries with 1000 books each. Each of the schools benefitting from the Varkey Foundation partnership also receives a furbished container room with book shelves and a librarian’s desk and chair.

Start a Library also runs reading clubs in schools. Our reading revolutionary teams help to start these up and run them in partnership with school management and volunteer reading ambassadors.

Individual and corporate organizations can sign up to donate books and funds to the Start a Library project as well as donate time to help run reading clubs as well as participate in the Read Aloud events.

Corporate Organisations can sign up by writing in to startalibrary@storymojaafrica.co.ke. Individual volunteers can sign up by filling in a form on startalibrary.org/site.­­

The next Storymoja Read Aloud will be held on the last week of January 2016. We hope that with your assistance and support, we can rally 1,000,000 participants across the country to read aloud with us!

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For More Information please contact:

Storymoja Communications Liaison: James Momanyi

Email: momanyi@storymojaafrica.co.ke

Phone Number: 0722472963

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: Generating Ideas and Research

StoryMoja organizes a monthly bloggers training for writers, in the months leading to the annual StoryMoja Festival.

On Saturday June 20^th at 11:00am, bloggers participating in the 2015 festival converged at the Storymoja offices for a training session with Morris Kiruga (Owaahh).

He started off by highlighting that all stories get married in creative non-fiction.

This genre of writing is not fictitious, which means that the writer highlights events or experiences that are happening or have happened before. It is creative work, hence the writer employs the use of various stylistic devises and colourful descriptions to bring the tale to life.

The audience of creative non-fiction are often intelligent beings with an addiction for colourful writing. Therefore writers must offer factual details  even as they tap into the magic of their creative juices.

3 Rs of creative non-fiction

There are three main tips to keep in mind when, best expressed as the 3 Rs of non-fiction writing. These are Research, Real-life exploration and Review.

A writer of creative non-fiction must get all the facts right. They should starts off by seeking out as much factual information as they can about the subject on which they wish to write. This will often require that one digs through the clatter to find all relevant information.

It is always necessary to watch out not to be overcome by the overload of information one finds. In research, one will run two risks: Either be overwhelmed by the facts they find, or keep procrastinating “until one has more details”. He advised us to learn to discern when we have found out 'enough' and stop.

Immersion

Another key aspect is to tap into the real-life experiences either of oneself or of others who have experienced the subject of the writing.

Unlike fiction writing which is often based on imagination, the gist of creative non-fiction writing is all in the telling. The writer should not tell rather show the facts in a way that people can enjoy reading. Hence, one must learn to tap into the magic and flow of their creative juices and tell the facts in a way that people can enjoy reading. The language should be as simple as possible without being simplistic. Owaah said that the only way to achieve this is through immersion. The writer must get immersed into the story, by finding ways to ignite the events, feelings and thoughts from that place and/or moment. One must become a sub-character following all the characters in the story. There are often two ways to gather relevant content through immersion. These are:

ü Memory: Find ways to stimulate old memories. Visit old places or look at old photos.

ü Interviews: Talk to some characters, learn how others see or feel or experience the 'thing'.

During the session, Owaah gave us short assignments with which we practised the skills necessary to ensure good quality work. We were able to read out pieces of our assignments and receive feedback, both from him and from fellow bloggers in the training.

... off my dreams

I dreamt of him last night,

A man like all others,

Yet unlike them all.

There is undeniably

Something special about him.

His skin is a bowl of fragrances,

Fresher than expensive cologne.

His voice is like music,

And his touch is pure sorcery,

He is handsome beyond description.

I felt him reach out his hand,

And touch my heart,

Like an entranced gazelle,

A beautiful excitement filled my heart,

Then exploded all over my body.