Ake Arts and Book Festival

Tag Archives: Ake Arts and Book Festival

Features, Lit Scene, News 2018/06/23

Fantastical Futures | Ake Festival 2018 Will Focus on a Re-Imagined Africa

The 2018 Ake Arts and Book Festival theme is “Fantastical Futures.” Previously held in Abeokuta, the 2018 event will be moved to Lagos. It will last from October 24 – 27. Founded in 2013 by Lola Shoneyin—Orange Prize-longlisted author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, director of Book Buzz Foundation, founder of the publishing house Ouida Books, […]

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Features, Stories and Poems, Submission 2018/01/18

Heaven Is a Place South of Here | Kanyinsola Olorunninsola | Memoir

And because no man is permitted entry into heaven without a sacrifice of his own. . . the story of your journey to Ake. 1. Abeokuta was not all too welcoming in the way that glorious Meccas were meant to embrace pilgrims. Its austere collection of distinct brown roofs arranged in military fashion served as […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News 2017/12/21

Photos | Ake Festival: Day 3 | Saraba’s Launch of Its First Print Issue

At the 2017 Ake Arts and Book Festival, Saraba magazine launched its first print issue. Themed Transitions, the issue features short fiction, reportage, travel writing, poetry, and photography. Its cover art is by Ojima Abalaka, whose artwork has appeared in The New York Times. Among the contributors are: 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets winner Ladan Osman; […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News 2017/12/06

Photos | Ake Festival: Day 2 | School Visitation

The 2017 Ake Arts and Book Festival took place from 14-18 November 2017, at Kuto Cultural Centre, Abeokuta. It featured a workshop, concerts, visits to secondary schools, a festival of short films, and of course, panels of writers, filmmakers and other thinkers discussing everything around the festival’s theme, “This F-Word”: feminism, men who write women […]

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Features, Lit Scene 2017/12/04

Ake Festival 2017: F Is for an F-ing Blast | Kayode Faniyi | Memoir

Lucia was keeping us. “Stay on this side of the road,” a nice man on her bus to Ojota had told her, “don’t use the pedestrian bridge.” She was half-way to Mile 12 when I called her, frantically demanding her whereabouts. Rendezvous was Berger. The nice man had misled her. A toppled trailer or some […]

Conversations with Teju Cole | Atanda Obatolu | Memoir

I first met him at the back of the hall. In front of the hall, on the stage, a new session was about to begin. He wore blue ankara—or was it green? I don’t quite remember. The space was bustling. He didn’t look very different from the videos I’d watched on YouTube; maybe a bit […]

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Features, Lit Scene 2017/11/30

Photos | Ake Festival: Day 1 | Nnedi Okorafor’s Fiction Workshop

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Features, Lit Scene, News 2017/11/18

Photos | Nommo Awards 2017: How Africa’s First Ever Speculative Fiction Awards Ceremony Happened

The announcement of the winners of the inaugural Nommo Awards took place at the ongoing 2017 Ake Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria. The Nommo Awards, founded in 2016 by the African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS), recognise the finest fantasy or science fiction works by Africans. The ASFS is a body of African writers, […]