The Gaborone Book Festival (GBF) has announced Dr. Kirk B. Sides as co-curator for its ninth edition, set to run August 20–22, 2026. Founded in late 2017 by sisters Keikantse and Kenanao Phele, GBF has grown into Botswana’s only literary festival with year-round programming, running a school outreach initiative, quarterly book nights, and a winter series alongside its flagship September gathering, all built around getting Batswana readers, young and old, engaged with African storytelling.

Sides brings a wide-ranging scholarly and editorial background to the role. An Assistant Professor of English and Affiliate Faculty in African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has held posts and research fellowships across the US, UK, and South Africa, including stints at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Munich’s Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. His book Environmental Entanglements: African Literature’s Ecological Imaginary, published by Oxford University Press in 2025 and released in an Africa continent edition by Wits University Press this past January, traces a century of ecological thought running through African literature. He’s currently at work on a new project, Narrative on the Edge, examining how storytelling responds to environmental change.

This year’s edition also marks a new institutional partnership, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison joining as a collaborator through its Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Full programming details for GBF 2026 are still to come, but the dates are locked in: August 20–22 in Gaborone. Brittle Paper will share more as the festival’s lineup takes shape.