Literature Gabfest, a new literary festival, will be hosted at the Studios on Seventh, Kampala from September 9-10, 2017.
There’s a new literary festival in Uganda called the Literature Gabfest organized by Book Enthusiasts in Kampala. As you know, a gabfest is a conference or other gathering with prolonged talking; in this case the talking would focus on the literary with inspiration from the Jaipur Literature Festival. The festival which will happen over a two day period has secured Peter Kagayi as the curator and has already signed partners like Youth Connect as others are in the offing.
Uganda is already home to some really happening initiatives like Femrite, Babishai and Writivism but there is always room for more. This new one is slightly different as its unique premise is that it is reader-driven and reader-centered.
With Ugandan literature not widely read and celebrated in its own country, festival organisers are trying to create a market for Ugandan literature, give Ugandan authors a platform to talk about their books and for readers in Kampala to get excited about literature originating from within Uganda. Hence the focus of the festival is celebrating Ugandan literature and its literary traditions such as that of storytelling.
The format of the event is conversational and the idea is that whoever enters the venue, enters on an equal footing with everyone else present—writers, published authors, readers, thinkers, etc. There will be a special program for children on Sunday 10 September, focusing on storytelling and collaborative writings.
The entrance fee is a book, and if you don’t have one, you can purchase one from the book sale. The reason for bringing books to the festival is because we will host a big book exchange (keeping true to our monthly club gatherings)—attendees will need to move around and interact and exchange books, those books that are not picked will then be considered donations to the club (we plan on setting up a mini library in Kampala, more on this later).
As and when information is available about this promising new initiative we will be sharing it including conformed guests and program.
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