Narrating Life: How to Write Memoirs and Biographies
17th to 18th January 2026, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Gem Forest Hotel Nairobi
When Google started, their original mission was “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. I, on the other hand, have a simpler one: to get everybody to tell their story. I believe each person has at least one marinating inside them. I don’t want these stories to disappear because every one of them is an essential chapter of the history of being human. And so we have this learning moment.
Narrating Life is a two-day writing workshop for people bearing true stories—their own, their families’, or others’—and are ready to shape them into the written word. You don’t need to be a writer—just someone willing to start.
Who Should Join
Join this workshop and enrich your life if you:
- Carry inside you a story that matters.
- Want to write your own life story or that of your family’s.
- Desire to record the remarkable experiences of other human beings.
- See writing as a profession, vocation, calling, or additional income stream.
- Are committed to starting the New Year right by learning something meaningful, grounded, long-lasting, and empowering.
What You May Learn
At the end of the two-day workshop, you will:
- Learn practical craft lessons from John Kiriamiti, Terry Wafula, and Agatha Verdadero–published authors at different stages of their professional writing careers.
- Distinguish the differences and similarities of memoirs, biographies, and personal/family chronicles.
- Familiarise yourself with the various documentation, tools, and resources that form a firm foundation for beginning your writing project.
- Know the how-tos for identifying stories worth telling and for structuring narratives into manuscripts worth reading.
- Write the first one thousand words of your manuscript.
- Draft a clear plan for completing your project.
What to Bring
Feel free to bring a laptop, if any, but you will also receive a workshop kit that includes a journal, a pen, and other similar stationery.
Tentative Workshop Schedule
Day One
- Welcome and Opening Remarks
- John Kiriamiti Lecture and Open Forum
- Tools of the Trade
- Finding Your Story Through Developmental Editing
- Developmental Editing Exercise and Workshop
Day Two
- The Best of Memoirs and Biographies
- Terry Wafula Lecture and Open Forum
- Groundwork Preps
- Project Plan Exercise and Workshop
- Guided Writing Exercise
Our Workshop Speakers
John Kiriamiti is a well-respected Kenyan author, known as a career criminal in his early years before turning his life around and writing My Life in Crime in 1984, his debut novel. He has gone on to pen a few more titles and has established himself in the canon of Kenyan literature. He opens the first day of the workshop with a discussion on writing the fictionalised account of his life story and how he identified parts of his experiences worth writing into books. (Photo from John Kiriamiti’s Facebook page)
Terry Wafula debuted as a published author with her memoir, Free Bird Rising, at Alliance Francaise in August 2025. Her book focuses on her experiences growing up in a dysfunctional and polygamous household and how she found refuge and salvation from her harsh childhood through faith in Christ. She opens the second day of the workshop, with a lecture on pushing through barriers and finally being able to tell her story. (Photo from Terry Wafula’s Facebook page)
Agatha Verdadero has been writing memoirs and biographies as a ghostwriter over the past two decades, and editing books and manuscripts since the 1990s. Her first commissioned work, Bridge Builder, was written for Dr Peter Okaalet. Dr Okaalet was a Ugandan medical doctor celebrated as a Time Magazine Global Health Hero in 2005, for raising HIV and AIDS awareness in the African continent. Her most recent project, The Journey to Everest, was penned in 2025 on behalf of James “KG” Kagambi, the first-ever Kenyan to summit the highest mountain on Earth. She facilitates the entire workshop with the hope that every participant leaves the event with a project ready to write to completion. (Photo from personal archives)
Cost and Payment Details
Conference Fee: KES 15,000
M-Pesa PayBill Number: 880100
Account Number: 4279130038
Registration and Payment Due Date: 12 January 2026
Contact Agatha Verdadero via email (av@agathaverdadero.com) or WhatsApp (+254 748 277 951) for alternative payment methods. Fees are non-refundable but may be applied towards a future Narrating Life event. Additional payment details may be found on the registration form. Click on the button below to register.
Narrating Life is a two-day writing workshop, 17th to 18th January 2026, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Gem Forest Hotel Nairobi, focused on memoirs and biographies, and the subgenre of family histories. It is designed for people interested in true-life writing, storytelling, and preserving lived experience.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash