Nigerian Ainehi Edoro announced as co-curator of Africa Writes 2023

Nigerian Ainehi Edoro has been announced as the co-curator of the UK’s largest African literature festival – Africa Writes 2023!

According to a report on Brittlepaper.com, the festival will be held at the British Library from Friday, September 29 to Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Africa Writes according to Brittle Paper is the UK’s largest celebration of contemporary African and diaspora literature. It is a biennial festival organized by the Royal African Society and presented in partnership with the British Library. The 2023 edition includes a vibrant program of talks, book launches, workshops, readings, and performances, connecting UK audiences with established and early career writers.

This year’s theme is “Intangible Heritage“, or a meditation on the things that make us who we are. The goal is to answer two key questions: What are the things that make us who we are that we can’t explain or put our fingers on? What parts of our culture are known and felt without being said and how do they manifest in our stories?

This year’s festival is co-curated by a team of 6 brilliant leaders in the African literary and publishing industry. They are:

 Ainehi Edoro is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Brittle Paper and Assistant Professor of Global Black Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Nancy Adimora is an award-winning publishing consultant and the founder of literary Magazine Afreada.

Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist and founder of the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival In Exile.

Kalaf Epalanga is a celebrated Angolan-born author and columnist who fronts the Lisbon-based dance collective Buraka Som Sistema.

 Maaza Mengiste is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, and photographer. Her novel, The Shadow King, was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

 Yomi Ṣode is an award-winning Nigerian-British playwright and poet. His debut collection Manorism was shortlisted for the TS Elliot and Rathbones Folio Prizes.

The festival features in-person as well as online events. Some of the highlights include Yvette Lisa Ndlovu hosting a workshop on African mythology and fiction writing, Blitz Bazawule in conversation with Irenosen Okojie, Kwame Dawes and Claudia Rankine in conversation, and a reading from the short story anthology The Edge of Here by Kelechi Okafor.