Okechukwu Ofili and Lena Renold are the guests at the James Murua Literary LiveStream on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 18:00 GMT/ 19:00 WAT/ 20:00 CAT/ 21:00 EAT. You can join the stream, brought to you in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office, on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.
In 2020, we introduced the James Murua Literary LiveStream to shine a light on the African literary ecosystem and ways to make it better. Previous guests to the stream have been Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Maaza Mengiste and Antje Rávik Strubel; Ondjaki and Philipp Khabo Koepsell; Mariette Tchamda Mbunpi and Annette Michael; as well as Nyana Kakoma and Mariela Nagle. The latter events were brought to you in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office.
In 2021, the literary LiveStream returned with Tsitsi Dangarembga, Volha Hapeyeva and Ralf Nestmeyer in March, and Chikè Frankie Edozien and Michaela Dudley in April. The guests for May will be Okechukwu Ofili and Lena Renold and their topic of discussion will be;
Taking the Books to the people
We often talk extensively about producing the book as a product for readers. The big question is, after producing the product, how do we get the books for the publisher to the audiences that need it? In this panel, we talk to leading experts on how the industry in Africa and Germany defines their audiences and how they distribute the product to those customers. What are the distribution chains in the two markets, both physical and virtual, and how have they influenced how people produce and consume the product in the last few decades.”
Here is more information about these personalities;
Okechukwu Ofili
Okechukwu Ofili was born in Nigeria, attended primary and secondary school in Lagos and Ogun states respectively and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston, in the United States of America, where he was recognized as the top 5 most outstanding Engineering seniors in his class.
Okechukwu is a 4-time TEDx speaker, one of Venture Africa’s 40 African Innovators to watch, listed on the Quartz Africa 2016 Innovators list, author of 4 bestselling books including How Intelligence Kills and the children’s book Afro: The Girl With The Magical hair published by Nigerian publishers Farafina/Kachifo.
He is an international blogger and the CEO and co-founder of OkadaBooks.com, the fastest growing mobile book reading app in Africa with over 200,000 users growing at a rate of 5,000 users per month.
Lena Renold
Lena Renold was born and grew up in New Jersey, USA. She graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts Internationals Affairs and with a minor International Economics from George Washington University in Washington D.C. During her studies she attended the University of Tübingen in Germany and decided in 1994 to relocate to Cologne, Germany.
In Germany, she completed the vocational training to become a bookseller. After stations in bookshops and as a book distributor, she began working in the Sales & Marketing departments of German publishing houses (e.g. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Hoffmann & Campe). In 2016 she founded her own business Rund ums Buch, specializing in sales & marketing for independent publishers.
The two will join the LiveStream at 18:00 GMT/ 19:00 WAT/ 20:00 CAT/ 21:00 EAT. If you want to interact with them, you can join the stream on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.
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