Maina Kinyatti

Biography

Maina wa Kinyatti was born in 1944 in Kenya. He is most well known for his collections Thunder from the Mountains: Poems and Songs from the Mau Mau and A Season of Blood: Poems from Kenyan Prisons. He went to Farmington University for his undergraduate studies and also received a master's in history from the University of Michigan. In 1982, he was arrested during the Moi administration for possessing seditious literature and was imprisoned for six years. He subsequently fled to Tanzania before receiving asylum from the United States. He has received several awards, including the PEN Freedom to Write Award.

Birth Date

1944-01-01

Place of Birth

Country of Nationality

Kenya

Languages Spoken

English

Farmington College, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Poetry Collections

Thunder from the Mountains: Poems and Songs from the Mau Mau (Africa World Press, New Jersey, 1990);
A Season of Blood: Poems from Kenyan prisons (Mau Mau Research Centre, 1995)

Sources

"Kenya: Maina wa Kinyatti." Index on Censorship, vol. 12, no. 4, 1983, Taylor and Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/03064228308533571.
 
"Maina wa Kinyatti." PEN America: The Freedom to Write, pen.org/advocacy-case/maina-wa-kinyatti/. Accessed 10 May 2022.
 
"Maina wa Kinyatti." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 February 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maina_wa_Kinyatti. Accessed 14 October 2024.