Aké Arts and Book Festival is back in two weeks, and its 14th edition has picked a fight with the machines. The theme for 2026 is “Native Intelligence,” and the question it puts to Lagos is a pointed one: if artificial intelligence learns from what has been written down, what happens to the knowledge that lives in proverbs, praise poetry, oral history, craft, and ritual? The festival runs from Thursday, 19 November to Saturday, 21 November at the Silkwood Hotel, 261 Sobo Arobiodu Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos. We first told you the dates back in April, and now the full programme is here.

The theme carries through the whole schedule, starting on Thursday with two panels. The first is “The Future of Creative Work with Artificial Intelligence,” presented by the African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) and hosted by Jude Umeh, with Jerry Falade, Marvellous Michael Anson, and Osahon Ize-Iyamu. The second is “Memory, Myth and the Machine,” presented with the Caine Prize for African Writing, where past winners Irenosen Okojie (2020) and Rotimi Babatunde (2012) join Jowhor Ile.

Speculative fiction fans have a lot to look forward to. The ASFS will present the 2026 Nommo Awards at the opening ceremony on Thursday, which is a homecoming of sorts, since the awards were first presented at the 2017 edition of Aké. Three guests are on the shortlist for the Ilube Award for Best Novel: Nnedi Okorafor for Death of the Author, Marvellous Michael Anson for Firstborn of the Sun, and Nkereuwem Albert for The Bone River. On Saturday, Okorafor discusses Death of the Author on stage with Wole Talabi, who won the 2024 Ilube Nommo Award for Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. That same day, Roye Okupe, whose Iyanu is a Nommo winner, joins a panel on Nigerian comics and animation.

Saturday is also a big day for the page. The festival will celebrate Granta 177, the magazine’s new Nigeria issue, with a conversation on Nigerian literature today between Dipo Faloyin, Ngozi John, and Sada Malumfashi, led by Josie Mitchell, followed by a Granta reception. Chika Unigwe, who won the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature for On Black Sisters’ Street, will present her novel Grace at the launch of Khadija Yusra Sanusi’s debut, The Most Unremarkable Things, with Amyn Bawa-Allah hosting. On Thursday, Ojoma Ochai launches Communities, Networks, Ecosystems: Why They Fail and How to Build Them, alongside Tara Fela-Durotoye, author of Building Beyond You, with Maryam Laushi hosting.

The evenings are where Aké gets its personality. After the panels end at 17:30, free entertainment takes over. Thursday brings a screening of How to Build a Library with Wanjiru Koinange and Angela Wachuka, and Friday features Savy Henry. At 22:00 on both nights, the festival is “tucked into bed” with a bedtime story, read by Khadija Yusra Sanusi on Thursday and Nkereuwem Albert on Friday. The closing night is Palm Wine and Poetry, hosted by Wana Udobang, whose return after a six-year hiatus with her fourth album, Dissonance we covered in August. She will be joined by Dami Ajayi, Abdulkareem Baba-Aminu, Chukky Ibe, Maryam Bukar, and D’bi Anitafrica.

Online registration closes on 9 November, so you have a few days. You can register at the Aké Festival website, and tickets will also be sold at the venue. The Lagos State Governor is also funding 100 book grants of ₦20,000 each. Aké 2026 is supported by the Lagos State Government, Sterling Bank, and Open Society Foundations. Festival founder and director Lola Shoneyin put it simply: “The plan is to outdo ourselves every year.”

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