Dilman Dila was the first writer at Season 3 of Afrolit Sans Frontières from Kampala, Uganda on Africa Day, May 25, 2020. He was hosted by Mohale Mashigo.
Afrolit Sans Frontières, a virtual literary festival for writers of African origin, started as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic international lockdown in March. It has had two iterations with Season 1 curated by festival founder Zukiswa Wanner in March and Season 2 co-curated with Maaza Mengiste and the founder in April. Season 3, with curation by Mohale Mashigo and Zukiswa Wanner, features 16 writers from 13 countries streaming from 15 cities in English, French, and Portuguese. All sessions run on the official Afrolit Sans Frontières Instagram page from May 25 to June 1.
The first to feature was Dilman Dila the writer, filmmaker, and author of a critically acclaimed collection of short stories, A Killing in the Sun. The Ugandan has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2013) and for the Nommo Awards for Best Novella (2017), and longlisted for the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition (2014), among many other accolades. His short fiction has featured in several anthologies, including African Monsters, Myriad Lands, AfroSF v2, and the Apex Book of World SF 4.
The session started with Dilman Dila reading from his new title A Fledgling Abiba before host Mohale Mashigo took charge. The two spoke about Dila’s work with questions from both the host as well as from the dozens who had logged into the session. You can watch it below.
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