The Doek Literary Festival returns to Windhoek for its third edition, running Wednesday, September 30 through Saturday, October 3, 2026. Hosted every two years by the Doek Arts Trust, the festival celebrates writers, poets, and visual artists connected to Doek! Literary Magazine, bringing Namibian literature into conversation with voices from across Africa, the diaspora, and beyond. This year’s theme, “History Is Handmade,” turns the festival’s attention toward analogue forms of storytelling and craft, from pen on paper to vinyl on a turntable, and asks what comes after the reading and writing is done, once the last page has been turned and the final line inked.

The 2026 edition marks a significant scaling up from the festival’s earlier iterations, which began modestly in 2022 with four international authors and seven Namibian writers, then expanded in 2024 with support from Bank Windhoek and the Windham Campbell Prizes. This year’s writer lineup includes Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Abdi Latif Dahir, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Femi Kayode, Bongani Kona, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, and Angolan novelist Ondjaki, alongside Namibian voices including Roxane Bayer, Filemon Iiyambo, and Samuel Mayinoti. Ondjaki and Ndlovu return as festival favorites from 2024, while Dahir, a New York Times correspondent who attended as a guest two years ago, now joins the roster as a featured writer in his own right.

Poetry takes center stage across two dedicated evenings, with readings from Nathalie Handal, Gregory Pardlo, Justin Boening, and Devon Walker-Figueroa sharing the stage with Namibian poets Hugh Ellis-Mwiya, Jedidja Kakuva, Vekondjisa Nosipho Katusuva, and Johannes Shikongo, among others. Michael Kelleher, director of the Windham Campbell Prizes and a longtime supporter of the festival, steps into the spotlight himself this year as a featured poet. Visual art gets its own dedicated space too, with Namibian illustrator Katherine Hunter and Moroccan artist Amine Serhane, the first Moroccan writer published in Doek!, exhibiting and selling work throughout the festival; Serhane will also lead a three-day Arabic calligraphy workshop, a first for the festival’s programming.

Music runs through the entire event as well, anchored by live performances from Querida, described as “the heart and soul” of the festival since 2022, alongside three vinyl listening and dance sessions curated by Brother Mbango, DJ Musketeer, and Le Roux van Schalkwyk, each inspired by a print from renowned Namibian printmaker John Muafangejo. Rounding out the guest list are architect and multi-species designer Joyce Hwang, whose work has appeared at MOMA and the Venice Biennale, and Mervyn Sloman, owner of Cape Town’s Book Lounge and director of the Open Book Festival, both offering perspectives on how literary spaces and physical spaces shape one another.

This year’s festival is backed by an expansive list of partners, including longtime supporters Bank Windhoek, the Windham Campbell Prizes, and the Goethe-Institut Namibia, alongside first-time collaborators including the Caine Prize for African Writing, which is sponsoring free creative writing workshops for all participants, and the European Union Delegation to Namibia. As in previous years, admission to all festival events remains free of charge, continuing Doek’s mission, in founder and director Rémy Ngamije’s words, to make literature as accessible as possible.