Brittle Paper will host its inaugural Literary Festival on Saturday, August 29, 2026, bringing together emerging writers in the African literary space for a one-day virtual event.
The festival will feature poetry and fiction readings, conversations on the publishing industry, and sessions focused on helping writers build their careers.
The festival is centred on emerging writers, a group Brittle Paper describes as often overlooked by the publishing industry, which tends to pay more attention to writers after they have published books, secured literary agents, won prizes, or reached other markers of success.
Brittle Paper receives close to 2,500 submissions each year, mostly from writers on the African continent. About 150 of those submissions are published on its website, while another 50 appear in its seasonal anthologies. Many of these contributors are published for the first time through Brittle Paper and receive mentorship from its editor, Tahzeeb Akram.
The festival will open with readings from writers who were published by Brittle Paper earlier in their careers.
The poetry session will feature Salama Wainaina, Aanuoluwapo Adesina, Salmah Salam Oiza, Chioniso Tsikisayi, Owen Habel Lwanda, Nabila Ismail, Laurène Southe and Omobola Osamor. Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley will make a special guest appearance during the session.
The fiction session will feature Amani Mosi, Mifa Adejumo, Bello Taiwo Victoria, Mercy Eni, Dami Salami, Riley Hlatshwayo, Mwende Makulu, Mali Kambandu and Marjorie Namara Ruganda.
Novelists Kelechi Okafor and Chukwuebuka Ibeh will headline a keynote panel titled “Can the Writer Still Have a Role in Society?” The discussion, moderated by Nteranya Sanginga, will examine the xaia of the writer in the age of artificial intelligence and social media. It will also consider how that role has changed since the era of writers such as Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
The festival will close with a masterclass titled “How to Go From Rejection to Book Deal.” The session will feature Othuke Ominiabohs, publisher of Masobe Books, and will be moderated by award-winning writer and managing editor of JAY Lit, Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim. It will focus on the process of securing a first book deal.
The festival is open to writers at different stages of their careers, including those just beginning to write, writers who want to reconnect with the early stages of their careers, and those who are considering writing but are unsure where to begin.
Click here to see the full program.
The festival will take place on August 29, 15:00 – 20:00 WAT / 10 AM – 3 PM EST, via Zoom.
