About NBO Litfest

A Festival of Ideas

Book Bunk is proud to present a literary festival like no other, firmly rooted in Nairobi’s vibrant public libraries. Our festival celebrates art, culture, and the boundless potential of knowledge, all flourishing within these invaluable spaces.  NBO Litfest is not just a festival; it’s a dynamic platform that unites writers, artists, and thinkers from the region and beyond with the community. Together, we amplify voices, inspire creativity, and ignite discussions that challenge conventions and inspire change.

Check Out Past Editions

Featured Participants

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo is an internationally bestselling, 2019 Booker Prize-winning writer of ten books and numerous other works. Her first non-fiction book, Manifesto, On Never Giving Up, was published in 2021. She is also a literary activist setting up many inclusion programmes for writers. Since 2020, she has been the curator of Black Britain: Writing Back for Penguin Random House, re-publishing books from the past. 

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford. He is the author of four non-fiction books, a collection of essays and nine novels. His books have won many prizes, and he holds six honorary doctorates. His work has been translated into over thirty languages, and he has served on the Jury of the Locarno and Venice film festivals.

Shafinaaz Hassim

Shafinaaz Hassim is a multi-award-winning author and sociologist from South Africa. Her more than fifteen titles have received international and local acclaim. In 2014, UNESCO listed her as one of the top 39 writers in Africa under the age of 40. 

The SALA and NIHSS awards and the UJ Prize for Creative Writing have commended her novels. 

Tendo Deborah Auko

Deborah Auko is a trained lawyer but a logistician by profession. She is the author of Rough Silk, a renowned memoir of an ordinary person that has been a best seller and Book of the Month. It has done a US tour and a UK tour. It was the only book from East Africa selected at the Cheltenham Literature Festival 2023 and celebrated its first anniversary in a sold-out event of 500 people at the KICC on the 18th of May 2024.

David Olusoga

He is the author or co-author of seven books, including – Black & British: A Forgotten History, which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. The World’s War, which won First World War Book of the Year in 2014. Black & British A Short Essential History was a Waterstones Book Of The Year, Non-Fiction winner at the Quiz Writers’ Choice Awards 2021 and Book of the Year, Children’s Non-fiction at the 2021 British Book Awards.

Amani Muthoni

Amani Muthoni is a 15-year-old author who has written two books. The first book, “Lia The Overcomer,” is a fictional work based on the adventures of a girl named Lia, who overcomes various challenges in her life. The second book, “The Cry Of Mother Nature,” is a factual piece that enlightens readers on the consequences of human actions on the environment and emphasises the importance of environmental stewardship.

Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna is a novelist, memoirist and essayist. Her novels are Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones. In 2002, she published a memoir of her dissident father and Sierra Leone, The Devil that Danced on the Water. The Window Seat, an essay collection, was published in 2021. She is currently writing an ecological history of the Great African Rift Valley.

Jon Lee Anderson

An American journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker since 1998, Anderson has covered numerous conflicts worldwide, including several in Africa, such as those in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Liberia, and Mali. He has written profiles of a range of political leaders, including Lula, Chavez, and Fidel Castro.

Programme

Masterclasses

Friday, 28th June 2024

Children's Festival

Friday, 28th June 2024

Main Festival

Saturday, 29th 2024

Main Festival

Sunday, 30th 2024