Africa Writes festival returns for the month of October, with a blended virtual and in-person programme from 4 – 24 October hosted online, at 180 The Strand and The British Library

This year marks the ninth and first biennial edition of Africa Writes. Given the past year we’ve all endured, this year’s festival will be centred around the themes of Imagination, Pleasure and Activism.

Africa Writes will partner with festival organisers on the African continent to co-curate a series of events as part of the British Council’s Digital Collaboration Fund.African festival partners confirmed are Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Ghana, Kaduna Book and Arts Festival in Nigeria and Afroqueer podcast in Kenya.

This year will also see the second edition of the Lifetime Achievement in African literature Award, which will be announced during the course of the festival.

We have opened our call for ideas for you to submit ideas or books you would like to see featured in this year’s festival.

The call will be open from Tuesday, 16 February, until Wednesday, 3 March, at 12:00 (GMT).

Please ensure your idea meets the themes of this year. The form takes approximately between 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

SUBMIT YOUR IDEA FOR 2021 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

We aim to let successful applicants know by late April 2021. If your submission is not considered for the 2021 festival we will send an email to confirm this, though given our small team and limited resources we will not be responding to individual applicants or provide any feedback.

NB: Africa Writes are currently working on the programme and will be letting applicants know the result of their submitted ideas in August

Thank you for your continuous support of the festival, we look forward to celebrating African literature with you later in the year!

Header Image: Detail from Mickalene Thomas’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires’ which is part of a show called ‘Femmes Noires’ at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann Collection © Mickalene Thomas