Stanley Onjezani Kenani

Who is Stanley Onjezani Kenani?

Stanley Onjezani Kenani is a Malawian writer born in 1976. A poet, Kenani has performed at the Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Harare International Festival of the Arts in Harare, Zimbabwe, and at the Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia. He has read with several famous African and world poets including Mahmoud Darwish of Palestine, Natalie Handal of Palestine/USA, Carolyn Forche of USA, Dennis Brutus of South Africa, Kereopetse Kgositsile of South Africa, Shimmer Chinodya of Zimbabwe, Chirikure Chirikure of Zimbabwe, Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga of Malawi and Alfred Msadala of Malawi among others.

Kenan has won several awards in his country for short story writing. In 2007, his short story, For Honour, won third prize in an HSBC/SA PEN Competition in which participants were drawn from 12 countries of Southern Africa, with the winners selected by multi-award winning Nobel Laureate JM Coetzee. The same short story was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2008 The story is published in an anthology called African Pens: New Writing From Southern Africa 2007.