Shadreck Chikoti to headline Zambia’s Tilembe Literary Festival 2016

Shadreck Chikoti will be the headline guest of the Tilembe Literary Festival the first in Zambia’s history.

The literary festival has been making its march into the African continent and Zambia is the latest to answer the call. The country’s National Arts Council has initiated the Southern African country’s first literary festival called the Tilembe Literary Festival which will be happening from 26-29 September 2016. The events will be happening at the Foxdale Court Park Office Park on Zambezi Road Roma in Lusaka.

The festival follows the theme “Celebrating the Art of the Liberation Struggle” and promises a lot for the lover of literature and everything around it. For those who want to learn from those who are already in the game, there are opportunities with masterclasses in film and theatre, scriptwriting, prose and poetry, writing and blogging. The names of those who will be providing the training will be provided as and when they are available.

The one name that we can confirm is the headline guest: Shadreck Chikoti. Lilongwe, Malawi resident Shadreck Chikoti became known around the continent for the first time when he was named in that famous Africa39 list in 2014. This was a list of writers under the age of 40 who were considered to be those who would be the leaders of their trade.

Chikoti is the writer of Azotus The Kingdom, a work of speculative fiction that quickly places him at the forefront of some of the most exciting writing coming out of the continent. He is also the leader of Pan African Publishers which came out with a short story collection Imagine Africa 500 that this blogger has loved a whole lot. He is also the guy who started The Story Club an initiative that allows Lilongwe residents to meet writers and the writers to meet their readers. As a publisher, writer and advocate for reading there couldn’t be a better gentleman to be the face of the first literary festival in his neighbouring country.

If you want to know about this festival, I suggest that you try their Facebook page which was set up a few days ago. If you are in Lusaka, we recommend that you support the nation’s first literary shebang.