KIMBILIO Give STL Day - 2024

Kimbilio® means “safe haven” in Swahili. We are a community of writers and scholars committed to developing, empowering and sustaining fiction writers from the African diaspora and their stories.  Projects include readings, presentations at professional conferences, social media networking, book prizes, and an annual summer retreat for fiction writers who are members of the Kimbilio community.

In 2024, Kimbilio is raising funds to support its ongoing programming in all areas.  We have BIG hopes and dreams for our community of writers, and every dollar you donate helps support those dreams.

This winter, in partnership with Four Way Books, Kimbilio will publish the 3rd title in our National Fiction Prize series, THERE'S NOTHING LEFT FOR YOU HERE, by Allegra Solomon.  We're looking forward to welcoming Allegra to St. Louis to be part of our Kimbilio Reading Series, held in partnership with Left Bank Books.  Over the past year the series has featured readings by Jonathan Escoffery, Latoya Watkins, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, David Haynes, Janelle Williams, and others.  

Since 2012, the Kimbilio mentor series has paired thirteen writers with published fiction writers to support their journeys to complete their first books.  We're excited about these books-in-progress and can't wait for them to show up on your shelves.  

And in July 2024, Kimbilio will welcome 20 new Fellows to our 10th annual retreat.  There are now close to 200 Kimbilio Fellows, each of them in their own way changing the face of contemporary literature.