Book festival to branch out to Kenya

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is to help create a new event in Africa in its first major overseas venture.

Organisers have revealed plans to join forces with writersandauthorsinkenya to launch a three-day in the event in the autumn.

A host of big-name Scottish others are appear to appear in the new event in Nairobia at the end of November, along with a host other international guests and stars of the Kenyan literary scene.

The joint venture with the pan-african writers’ collective, Jalada, which will feature workshops, debates and masterclasses, was announced at the launch of Edinburgh’s literary celebration.

The book festival has gone “on the road” around Scotland in recent years and has staged special events in New Towns like Cumbernauld, Glenrothes, Irvine and Livingston.

Book festival director Nick Barley said: “We’re organising this mini-festival on the bank of a trip I made to Nairobi last year after Wanjeri Gakuru from the Jalada collective came here last year.

“I was really impressed at the way she was making events happen and reach new audiences in Kenya. I really wanted to see that for myself and see what we could learn.

“Bringing some of Scotland’s leading writers together with some of the writers she works with, and see how publishing works in Africa, will be really fascinating.”