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This year, two major literary and arts events, the Ake Book and Arts Festival and the 37th International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) are taking off in Lagos on the same day.
The Ake Festival, which usually holds in Abeokuta, Ogun State was moved this year to Lagos. The ANA convention, on the other hand, which rotates across different states in the country (it held in Benue State in 2017) this time around takes place in Lagos. Both are scheduled to kick-off from October 25 to 28.
Both events have intriguing themes and promise to be engaging. Ake is tagged ‘Fantastical Futures’, while ANA convention is ‘Literature: Megacities, Mega-Narratives’.
At Ake, among several other Book Chats, Man Booker Prize winner and author of ‘The Sellout’, Paul Beatty and Nicole DennisBenn, author of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ will discuss their books with host, Tolu Daniel to discuss their books. Other authors at the event would include Nnedi Okorafor, Odafe Atogun, Sefi Atta and many more.
The Ake Arts and Book Festival is organised by Book Buzz Foundation, Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation founded by teacher and writer, Lola Shoneyin. The festival is a six-day festival that celebrates books and other interconnected facets of the arts. The festival features master classes and workshops in various aspects of performance art, visual art, drama, fashion, music, film, dance and writing.
ANA convention will be declared open by Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, while keynote speaker will be Prof. Karen King-Aribisala, from the University of Lagos. Other events include plays, excursions to the Lagos beach, book fairs, award dinner and so on.
Both events will be centred around talks, book chats, art, and a variety of entertaining activities.