Oludhe-Macgoye, Marjorie 1928–

PERSONAL: Born October 21, 1928, in Southampton, England; citizen of Kenya; daughter of R.T. and P.M.A. King; married D.G.W. Oludhe-Macgoye (a clinical officer), June 4, 1960 (died 1990); children: Phyllis Ahoya, George Ng'ong'a, Francis Ochieng', Lawrence Odera. Education: Royal Holloway College, London, B.A., 1948; Birkbeck College, London, M.A., 1952. Religion: Christian.

ADDRESSES: Home—Box 70344, Nairobi 00400, Kenya.

CAREER: Writer. Worked as a bookseller, publisher's representative, and secondary schoolteacher; University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, editor in external degree program, 1986–1988.

AWARDS, HONORS: Sinclair Prize for fiction, 1986, for Coming to Birth.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Murder in Majengo, Oxford University Press (Nairobi, Kenya), 1972.

Coming to Birth, William Heinemann (Oxford, England), 1986, Feminist Press (New York, NY), 2000.

The Present Moment, William Heinemann (Oxford, England), 1987, Feminist Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Homing In, East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 1993.

Victoria and Murder in Majengo, Macmillan (Basing-stoke, England), 1993.

Chira, East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 1997.

A Farm Called Kishinev, East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 2005.

OTHER

Growing Up at Lina School (juvenile), East African Publishing House (Nairobi, Kenya), 1971, reprinted 1988.

Song of Nyarloka and Other Poems, Oxford University Press (Nairobi, Kenya), 1977.

The Story of Kenya, Oxford University Press (Nairobi, Kenya), 1986.

Street Life (novella), Heinemann Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya), 1987.

Moral Issues in Kenya (theology), Uzima Press (Nairobi, Kenya), 1996.

The Black Hand Gang (juvenile), East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 1997.

Make It Sing and Other Poems, East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 1998.

Further Adventures of the Black Hand Gang (juvenile), East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya), 2005.

Poetry represented in anthologies, including Summer Fires, Heinemann (Oxford, England), 1983; The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English, Heinemann (Oxford, England), 1990; and The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry, Heinemann (Oxford, England), 1995. Contributor of poetry and short stories to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Creative Writing in Prose and The Composition of Poetry, textbooks for Nairobi University Press (Nairobi, Kenya); The Black Hand Gang Grow Up (juvenile), East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi, Kenya).

SIDELIGHTS: Marjorie Oludhe-Macgoye once told CA: "I came to Kenya as a Christian missionary. There is no discontinuity in staying on as wife and citizen. In each society and circumstance, the vocation remains inevitable, not a matter of choice."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kurtz, J. Roger, Urban Obsessions, Urban Fears: The Postcolonial Kenyan Novel, Africa World Press (Trenton, NJ), 1998.

Kurtz, J. Roger, Nyarloka's Gift: The Writing of Marjorie Oludhe-Macgoye, Mvule Africa (Nairobi, Kenya), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, March, 2001, Denolyn Caroll, review of Coming to Birth, p. 55.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2000, review of Coming to Birth and The Present Moment, p. 1564.

New Statesman, September 4, 1987, Nancee Oku Bright, review of The Present Moment, p. 30.

New York Times Book Review, February 25, 2001, Erik Burns, review of Coming to Birth, p. 18.

Times Literary Supplement, September 5, 1986.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1995, J. Roger Kurtz, review of Homing In, p. 853; autumn, 1997, J. Roger Kurtz, review of Chira, p. 852; autumn, 1999, review of Make It Sing and Other Poems, p. 797.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, http://www.h-net.org/ (August, 1999), review of Make It Sing and Other Poems.