Moraa Gitaa, author of Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold, was born, bred and raised in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city. She has lived and worked in the coastal beach town all her life and only recently moved to Nairobi where she is a fulltime writer and is working on plans to initiate an organization that provides books for disadvantaged children residing in informal settlements and those challenged by dyslexia, a condition that had challenged her daughter.

She attended the Aga Khan group of schools in Mombasa and studied Administration and IT at the Coast College of Commerce.

Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold is her debut novel.She has a finished teen novella which is yet to be published, and is currently working on her second and third novels titled Shifting Sands and Devil in the Detail, respectively. A chapter excerpt in ‘Shifting Sands’ titled ‘From Shifting Sands to Deeper Dimensions’ won the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK)), Literary Awards Book Week 1st Prize Adult Fiction Category at the 11th Nairobi International Book Fair September 2008.

Moraa was the Kenya staff writer for G21 and also writes for the American publications Mshale and African Magazine. She has penned a couple of book reviews for the Kenyan newspaper The Sunday Nation.

She has several short stories published in various anthologies including G21’s Africa Fresh!–New voices from the first continent (2007) and Author-Me’s Author Africa–2008 Anthology, some of which were submitted for the Caine Prize for African writing. In 2005-2006 with 11 other screen-writers they co-authored and created a concept in the form of a new TV crime detective series titled CID Nairobi but are yet to get funding for the 13 series shoot.

She cites her greatest inspiration as her daughter Tracy and the Kenyan-African woman who struggles daily to ensure she provides for her family.

Watch out for Moraa’s upcoming works, including Shifting Sands and Devil in the Detail.

Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold is available from Amazon.