GBF21 announces featured authors and guests

TheVoiceBW
FILE PIC: Featured authors from the GBF18

On Friday, 10 September the Gaborone Book Festival Trust announced its 2021 featured authors and guests. The book festival which is the only festival of its kind in Botswana, will be staging its 4th edition from Thursday, 16 September until Saturday, 18 September.

“We are excited to be hosting quite a diversity of authors for this year’s festival who are from different fields and genres. We are featuring both Batswana and other African authors. Our book chats, conversations and launches will have a sharp focus on children’s literature by African authors , gender based violence, how Covid-19 changed the world instantly, heritage, travel and culture,” said Keikantse Phele, Co-Founder and Co-Curator of Gaborone Book Festival.

Due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation, the festival will be hosted virtually.

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GBF 21 confirmed authors and guests

  • Nanjala Nyabola – A Kenyan based writer and researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection between technology, media, and society. (Travelling While Black)
  • Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe – a Professor of linguistics and lexicography and a leading voice in the development and preservation of the Setswana language. (Diane, Maele, Mafoko, le Dithamalakane)
  • Shudufhadzo Musida – Author and Miss SA 2020 (Shudu Finds Her Magic)
  • Tshepo Moyo – Through performing arts, public speaking engagements and her expansive
    writing works on digital and traditional media, Tshepo has put a lens on critical issues around
    equal rights and autonomy for women and girls. (Becoming)
  • Mabu Nteta – Motswana business woman and leader, Editor (Pandemic Diaries)
  • Sue Nyathi – Author of 3 published novels, Editor and Investment Analyst. (When secrets become
    stories)
  • Dr. Zaheera Jina Asvat: A writer and an academic. She holds a PhD in mathematics education.
    Zaheera is the author of Surprise! and the StimuMath programme for pre-schoolers. She is the editor of Tween Tales 1, Tween Tales 2,Saffron and Riding the Samoosa Express. (When secretsbecome stories)
  • Nompumelelo Mqwebu: A trained chef and author. (Through the Eyes of an African Chef)
  • Botho Lejowa – A published author with her second novel Meetings with Death published in 2021.
    She is a fellow of the African Writers Publishing Fellowship Programme (2020) and the winner of
    their 2020 Publishing Fellowship Programme grant.
  • Kojo Baffoe – Of Ghanaian/German heritage and raised in Lesotho, Kojo is a writer, freelance
    editor, speaker, content strategist, former magazine editor, former radio talk show host,
    entrepreneur and sometime poet. (Listening to your footsteps)
  • Oladele Olafuyi – Marketing Professional and co-founder of Kunda Kids, London based
    publishing and creative media studio that illuminates African stories through books, songs,
    animations and games (Kunda Kids Series)
  • Lorato Trok – Early literacy consultant with over 20 years in publishing, writing, translating, editing
    and story development for in children’s literature (The Unforgotten Scientist)
  • Shubnum Khan – A Durban based author and artist. A former fellow of (How I Accidentally
    Became a Global Stock Photo and Other Strange and Wonderful Stories) 

    About Gaborone Book Festival Trust
    The Gaborone Book Festival Trust (GBF) is a not for profit organisation founded in late 2017. 

    Prior to its establishment and its first installment in September 2018, Botswana didn’t have an existing book festival or any literary platform. 

    The Trust was and remains a timely response to the underdevelopment and gross under-resourcing of the literary sector in Botswana. 

    GBF’s main objective is to encourage people of all ages to read for pleasure, with a keen focus on promoting engagement with the literary works of authors from Botswana, as well as other authors and storytellers across the African continent and in the diaspora. 

    The festival is a great opportunity to introduce authors to new audiences thus creating demand and inquiry into their work, which is essential. 

    To achieve this, GBF uses various platforms throughout the year to engage audiences from school going children to adults. 

    These activity-driven platforms include a nationwide, yearlong school outreach program; the GBF Winter Series; Quarterly Book Nights, and the cornerstone event being the annual Gaborone Book Festival.

  

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