Doek, together with the University of East Anglia’s International Chair of Creative Writing, is pleased to unveil the guest list for the Doek Literary Festival, which will be held from 21-23 April, 2022, at the Goethe-Institut, Windhoek, Namibia.
This year’s festival will focus on fiction in the novel and short forms. An exciting lineup of international and local writers are scheduled to take part in readings, panel discussions, and facilitate creative writing workshops for readers, writers, and lovers of literature.
Headlining the festival is the award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga and UEA’s inaugural Chair of International Creative Writing, whose books Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, and This Mournable Body have been the recipients of numerous literary awards including a shortlisting for the Booker Prize in 2020. She was also a recent recipient of a Windham-Campbell Prize, one of the world’s richest literary prizes.
![Zukiswa Wanner for Doek Literary Festival.](https://i0.wp.com/opencountrymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Zukiswa-Wanner-03.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1)
Dangarembga is joined by the first African woman to be awarded the Goethe Medal, Zukiswa Wanner, the South African editor, publisher, and author of the award-winning novels The Madams, Men of the South, and London Cape Town Joburg.
The Nigerian writer Femi Kayode, who won the UEA/Little Brown Award for his debut novel Lightseekers, and the Canadian writer and Professor of Creative Writing at UEA Jean McNeil, who has written more than 14 books and been awarded numerous literary honours, round off the festival’s international guest list.
![Femi Kayode for Doek Literary Festival.](https://i0.wp.com/opencountrymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Femi-Kayode-01.jpg?resize=800%2C737&ssl=1)
Namibian flavours are provided by the 2022-2023 Doek Collective, an eclectic cohort of emerging writers whose works have been featured in Doek! Literary Magazine or are forthcoming in other publications. The Doek Collective is bristling with young talent and consists of Charmaine //Gamxamus, Roxane Bayer, Kay-Leigh De Sousa, Katherine Hunter, Filemon Iiyambo, Dalene Kooper, Ange Mucyo, and Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo, who won the inaugural fiction prize of the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards in 2021. Joining them is Rémy Ngamije, Doek’s founder and chairperson, editor-in-chief of Doek!, and the award-winning author of The Eternal Audience of One.
All of the writers’ biographies as well as the event program can be read on the festival website.
DATES
- Thursday, 21 April—Saturday, 23 April 2022
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA’S INTERNATIONAL CHAIR OF CREATIVE WRITING
Created by the University of East Anglia (UEA), the International Chair of Creative Writing (ICCW) offers five prominent writers, over five years, in five global regions, a year-long remit to help find, nurture, and promote new and emerging writers. In 2022, the ICCW embarked on its Africa Year with its inaugural chair Tsitsi Dangarembga, the Zimbabwean playwright, filmmaker, and critically-acclaimed author of Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, and This Mournable Body.