The first group of authors has been announced for the eighth Open Book Festival!

This year’s Open Book will take place from 5 to 9 September, at the Book Lounge, the District Six Homecoming Centre, the A4 Arts Foundation and the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town.

Local authors who will be at this year’s festival include Tumelo Buthelezi, Ijangolet S Ogwang, Clinton Chauke, Rebecca Davis, Haji Mohamed Dawjee, Judith February, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, Craig Higginson, Siya Khumalo, Landa Mabenge, Angela Makholwa, Sue Nyathi, Mohale Mashigo, Niq Mhlongo and Zukiswa Wanner.

Confirmed international guests include Nigerian–American writer Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, Jamaican–American writer Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun, award-winning author Aminatta Forna, and Nigerian–American author Frankie Edozien, whose memoir Lives of Great Men has just been announced as the 2018 Lambda Literary Award winner for gay memoir or biography, among many others!

Press release

Brought to you by the Book Lounge and the Fugard Theatre, Open Book Festival offers a world-class selection of book launches, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses, readings, performances, and more. The festival also hosts the popular Comics Fest, #cocreatePoetica and various children’s and outreach programmes. Venues for the event include the Fugard Theatre, District Six Homecoming Centre, the A4 Arts Foundation, and The Book Lounge in Cape Town, and are all within walking distance of one another. Selected events will also take place outside the city centre, such as at Elsies River Library and Molo Mhlaba School.

Open Book Festival has established itself as one of the most innovative literature festivals in South Africa. It has twice been shortlisted for the London Book Fair Excellence Awards. Last year, nearly 10 000 people attended the festival’s record 140 events, with ticket sales from previous years surpassed in the first two days. Open Book Festival is committed to creating a platform to celebrate South African writers, as well as hosting top international authors. The festival strives to instill a love of reading among young attendees, with the programme designed to engage, entertain and inspire conversations among festival goers long after the event.

‘We are once again compiling a phenomenal line up of authors, across a wide range of genres, to join us at the festival,’ Festival Director Mervyn Sloman says. ‘We’ve put together a short preview of some of the authors joining us, to help plan your reading.’

The international authors include:

Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria/USA)
Books include: What it Means when a Man Falls from the Sky
Why we’re excited: Lesley has been a finalist for the Caine Prize and a winner of the African Commonwealth Short Story Prize among other honors. She was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 and her debut collection What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky won the 2017 Kirkus Prize.

Jonas Bonnier (Sweden) joining us courtesy of the Swedish Embassy
Books include: The Helicopter Heist, Stockholm Odenplan
Why we’re excited: Jonas Bonnier is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. His latest book, The Helicopter Heist, is a gripping suspense thriller about the Västberga helicopter robbery. It has been sold to 34 territories.

David Chariandy (Canada) joining us courtesy of Canada Council of the Arts
Books include: Brother, Soucouyant
Why we’re excited: David Chariandy won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2017 for Brother. The Guardian UK described it as ‘breathtaking … compulsive, brutal and flawless’. David’s debut novel, Soucouyant, received nominations from 11 literary awards juries.

Anna Dahlqvist (Sweden)
Books include: It’s Only Blood
Why we’re excited: Anna Dahlqvist is a leading voice writing about women’s and girls’ rights. She is editor-in-chief of Ottar, a Swedish magazine focusing on sexuality, politics, society and culture.

Nicole Dennis-Benn (Jamaica/USA) with thanks to Stellenbosch University for assisting with her joining us
Books include: Here Comes the Sun
Why we’re excited: Her debut novel, Here Comes The Sun, received a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a NPR Best Books of 2016, an Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Entertainment Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016, a BuzzFeed Best Literary Debuts of 2016, among others.

Guy Deslisle (Canada) joining us courtesy of Canada Council of the Arts
Books include: Hostage, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City
Why we’re excited: Guy Deslisle is a cartoonist and animator, who is acclaimed for his graphic novels about his travels. His most recent book, Hostage, was longlisted for Brooklyn Public Library’s 2017 literary prize.

Frankie Edozien (Nigeria/USA)
Books include: Lives of Great Men
Why we’re excited: Frankie Edozien is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of AFRrican Magazine. Lives of Great Men won a Lambda Literary Award. The Financial Times called the book ‘a fine contribution to the important work of pursuing equality and social justice on a global scale’.

Mariana Enriquez (Argentina) joining us courtesy of the Embassy of Argentina
Books include: Things We Lost in the Fire
Why we’re excited: Stories by Mariana Enriquez have appeared in anthologies of Spain, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Germany. The New York Times Book Review called Things We Lost in the Fire ‘[P]ropulsive and mesmerizing, laced with vivid descriptions of the grotesque … and the darkest humor’

Aminatta Forna (Scotland/Sierra Leone/USA)
Books include: Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love
Why we’re excited: Aminatta Forna’s award-winning work has been translated into eighteen languages. Her essays have appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The Guardian, LitHub, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, The Observer and Vogue. She has written stories for BBC radio and written and presented television documentaries.

Adam Smyer (USA)
Books include: Knucklehead
Why we’re excited: Adam Smyer’s debut novel Knucklehead is a refreshingly honest, fierce, intelligent, and often hilarious read. ‘By setting his novel in the ’90s, Smyer, has crafted some brutal deja vu. As Marcus reflects on Rodney King, the Million Man March and the Oklahoma City bombing, we think of Freddie Gray, Black Lives Matter and school shootings that have become a way of life … Here we are more than 20 years on, and it’s only git worse. We should all be furious.’ – San Francisco Chronicle.

Mariko Tamaki (Canada) joining us courtesy of the Canada Council of the Arts
Books include: Skim, Emiko Superstar, This One Summer
Why we’re excited: Mariko Tamaki is an acclaimed graphic novelist and author. In 2016 she began writing for both Marvel and DC Comics.

‘A key objective of Open Book Festival is to celebrate the wealth of South African talent,’ says Sloman. ‘We have a selection of the most insightful minds and compelling storytellers joining us. Here are a few.’

‘We are looking forward to The Last Sentence, a psychological thriller and the debut novel from Tumelo Buthelezi and also to welcoming Ijangolet S Ogwang, whose novel An Image in a Mirror, is a richly told African coming-of-age story.’

Clinton Chauke’s Born in Chains: The Diary of an Angry ‘Born Free’ is a story of hope, where, even in a sea of poverty, there are those that refuse to give up and, ultimately, succeed. Journalist Rebecca Davis, author of Best White and Other Anxious Delusions will talk about her new memoir and journey on a spiritual quest.

Sorry, Not Sorry author Haji Mohamed Dawjee joins us to discuss this revealing experience of moving through post-apartheid South Africa as a woman of colour.

‘We are delighted to welcome back Judith February of the Institute for Security Studies, and author Pumla Dineo Gqola, whose book Reflecting Rogue was the best selling title at last year’s Festival,’ says Sloman.

Nozizwe Cynthia Jele has recently released her new novel, The Ones With Purpose. Happiness is a Four-Letter Word was Jele’s debut novel and won the Best First Book category (Africa region) in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011, as well as the 2011 M-Net Literary Award in the Film category. Playwright and theatre director Craig Higginson whose novels include The Dream House also joins the line-up to talk about his new novel, The White Room.

Siya Khumalo’s debut memoir, You Have to be Gay to Know God, is a powerful book dealing with gay identity. In Becoming Him, Landa Mabenge explores his own journey that includes being the first transgender man in South Africa to successfully force a medical aid to pay for his surgeries.

The Blessed Girl by Angela Makholwa sees an unraveling of the life that ambitious, social climber Bontle Tau was aiming for. Makholwa’s previous books include Black Widow Society,
30th Candle and Red Ink.

The Gold Diggers is the latest novel by Sue Nyathi (The Polygamist). It is a simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming chronicle of immigrant experiences.

Singer-songwriter and author Mohale Mashigo (The Yearning) returns to talk about her new collection, Intruders While in Soweto.

In Under the Apricot Tree, another festival regular Niq Mhlongo brings the complexities of Soweto to life on the page.

Zukiswa Wanner’s books include Men of the South, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize Africa Region for Best Book; London – Cape Town – Joburg and children’s book Refilwe. Her most recent book Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts explores the politics of nations, and the ‘burden’ of travelling on an African passport.

SAPS Major General Jeremy Vearey also joins us to talk about Jeremy Vannie Elsies which chronicles his journey of growing up in Elsies River, from rough-and-tumble youngster to the head of the anti-gang unit in the Western Cape. Along the way he mastered the Communist Manifesto in Afrikaans, joined MK, and was sent to Robben Island for his role in the struggle.

The eighth Open Book Festival will take place from 5 to 9 September at the Fugard Theatre, D6 Homecoming Centre, The A4 Arts Foundation and The Book Lounge from 10:00 to 21:00 each day.

For further information and the full programme, which will be available in early August, visit www.openbookfestival.co.za.

Bookings can be made at Webtickets www.webtickets.co.za.

Open Book Festival is organised in partnership with the Fugard Theatre, The District 6 Museum, The A4 Arts Foundation, The Townhouse Hotel,  Novus Holdings, The French Institute, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Embassy of Sweden, The Embassy of Argentina, The Dutch Foundation for Literature, UCT Creative Writing Department, University of Stellenbosch English Department and Central Library and is sponsored by Leopards Leap, Open Society Foundation, Pan Macmillan, NB Publishers, Jonathan Ball and Penguin Random House.

Ends

 

Categories Africa Fiction International Non-fiction South Africa South African Current Affairs

Tags Adam Smyer Aminatta Forna Angela Makholwa Anna Dahlqvist Book events Cape Town Clinton Chauke Craig Higginson David Chariandy Frankie Edozien Guy Deslisle Haji Mohamed Dawjee Ijangolet S Ogwang Jonas Bonnier Judith February Landa Mabenge Lesley Nneka Arimah Mariana Enriquez Mariko Tamaki Mervyn Sloman Mohale Mashigo News Nicole Dennis-Benn Niq Mhlongo Nozizwe Cynthia Jele Open Book Open Book Festival Pumla Dineo Gqola Rebecca Davis Siya Khumalo Sue Nyathi Tumelo Buthelezi Zukiswa Wanner