KVI STORY COORDINATES · KENYA · POETRY
I Should Dedicate a Book
When ordinary experiences become poetry
By KVI Editorial · Featuring Victoria Kenanda
Some books begin as an attempt to understand a single feeling. As the writing continues, that feeling opens into questions about other lives, other struggles, and the things people seldom say aloud.
That is part of the journey behind I Should Dedicate a Book, the 2026 poetry collection by Kenyan writer Victoria Kenanda. What started as a personal act of writing grew into a collection that acknowledges experiences many readers will recognize, even when they have struggled to describe them.
Kenanda writes about ordinary days and difficult seasons without pretending that every question has a simple answer. Her poetry gives attention to memory, interrupted dreams, relationships, quiet challenges, and the possibility of hope.
What deserves a dedication?
We usually dedicate books to people we love, people we miss, or people who changed our lives. Kenanda widens that familiar gesture. A dedication can also hold a difficult season, a postponed dream, an ordinary memory, or an experience that has never been given much attention.
To dedicate a page to something is to say that it mattered. The subject does not have to be extraordinary to deserve recognition. A moment that seemed insignificant when it happened can become part of the story we tell about ourselves.
The collection makes room for readers who want to feel understood rather than instructed. Its poems do not have to solve an experience to acknowledge its weight. Naming a feeling can be an act of attention, and attention can change how we carry a memory.
That is the larger invitation of I Should Dedicate a Book: to reconsider what we have lived through, what we remember, and what deserves a place in words.
The book
- Title
- I Should Dedicate a Book
- Author
- Victoria Kenanda
- Literary form
- Poetry collection
- Country
- Kenya
- Language
- English
- Edition
- First edition, 2026
About Victoria Kenanda
Victoria Kenanda is a poet and writer whose work explores human experiences, emotions, relationships, and the little things people often struggle to put into words.
She is the founder of Word of the Day Magazine, a literary platform that brings together different voices and perspectives through poetry, stories, and creative expression. She is also the CEO of Smart Revision Hub, an educational initiative focused on creating learning resources for children.
Victoria is the author of I Should Dedicate a Book and is currently working on her upcoming novel, Perfectly Planned. Through her writing and other ventures, she continues to create spaces for stories, learning, and expression.
More from Victoria Kenanda
Her poetry also appears in earlier Krafty Page ChronicleS editorial reflections:
A question for readers
What ordinary part of your life deserves a dedication?
I would dedicate a part of my life to the ordinary days when I had every reason to become bitter but still chose to care.
Not every lesson came from a classroom, a book, or someone offering guidance. Some came through disappointment, witnessing suffering, experiencing mistreatment, and discovering how easily people can overlook another person’s pain.
Those experiences taught me something about humanity. Compassion is more than feeling sorry for someone. It is recognizing suffering without demanding that someone explain why it hurts.
I would dedicate those ordinary moments to the person I continued becoming through them. Not because I handled everything perfectly, but because I learned that understanding pain gives us a choice: we can pass it on, or we can become more conscious of how we treat others.
And to me, that is a dedication worth writing.