Thembekile Mahlaba, Dela Gwala, Pumla Gqola and Sara Jayne King in discussion at the event for Feminism Is. Photo credit: Bulumko Gana.

The 2018 Open Book Festival took place from 5-9 September, in Cape Town: event centres included The Fugard Theatre, The District 6 Museum Homecoming Centre, and The Book Lounge.

The event, which is in its eighth year, had among its guests: Aminatta Forna, whose fourth novel Happiness dropped earlier in the year; Chike Frankie Edozien, whose LAMBDA Award-winning 2017 memoir Lives of Great Men is the first by a gay Nigerian; Short Story Day Africa founder Rachel Zadok and their editing mentor Helen Moffett; Jacqui L’Ange, author of the 9Mobile Prize finalist The Seed Thief; Jennifer Malec, editor at The Johannesburg Review of Books; Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of the multi-awarded What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky; Mapule Mohulatsi, author of the children’s literature book Mizz President; the writer and journalist Mark Gevisser; Megan Ross, author of the poetry collection Milk Fever and winner of the 2017 Brittle Paper Award for Fiction; Mohale Mashigo, author of The Yearning; Nadia Davids, author of An Imperfect Blessing; Nick Mulgrew, founder of uHlanga Poetry Press, publisher of Koleka Putuma and Megan Ross; Niq Mhlongo, author of Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree; Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, author of Happiness is a Four-Letter Word and The Ones with Purpose; Yewande Omotoso, author of the Baileys Prize-longlisted The Woman Next Door; Zukiswa Wanner, novelist and currently the curator of Goethe-Institut’s YA fiction talent search #AFROYOUNGADULT; and Caine Prize and Gerald Kraak Award finalist Efemia Chela.

See photos from the event below, courtesy of Open Book Festival official Christine Skinner. Credit: Bulumko Gana.

The popular Comics Fest takes place each year as part of Open Book Festival.

Raphael Urwiller and Mayumi Otero, the duo behind Icinori during the Cencertina Books Workshop.