By Prof. T. Michael Mboya
The Writers Cooperative is a collective of writers and aspiring writers who at one time or another were students at Moi University, Kenya. The core activity of the Cooperative is the bettering of the work of the writers and aspiring writers. The work can be in any genre of Literature. The writers and aspiring writers share their work among themselves. The shared work is then critically commented on in the meetings of the collective. Through the comments the author is made aware of the (possible) takes on aspects of his or her work by different readers, who are themselves writers or aspiring writers. What the author does with the proffered comments is his or her choice and responsibility. The understanding that guides the core activity of the Cooperative is that work shared in the Cooperative’s meetings is Work in Progress, and as such it can be edited, corrected, tweaked, revised or even overhauled.
The Writers Cooperative was founded in 1989 as The Writers Club of Moi University. Back then the collective held weekly meetings in the house of its patron, David Cook. The collective has since held its regular meetings in different spaces – in Students Rooms on the Main Campus of Moi University, in the Lecturers Offices in the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) Building in the Main Campus of Moi University, in Lecture Rooms both on the Main Campus of Moi University and on the university’s West Campus, and under a tree on the grounds of the West Campus of Moi University. This blog is the newest meeting space for the cooperative. The blog supplements the other meeting spaces that are currently being used by the Cooperative. Excitingly, it also makes possible the participation of members of the collective who for one reason or another cannot attend the regular meetings in the Cooperative’s core activity. By so doing it links generations of the collective’s members.
To have your work critiqued on this blog, kindly send us an email using the form on our Contact us page or write us directly on writerscoop.ke@gmail.com
Prof. T. Michael Mboya teaches in the Department of Literature, Theatre and Film Studies at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya.
