Book Bunk and Hay Festival Global are proud to announce the return of Nairobi Litfest alongside the launch of the literature festival’s 2026 programme. The festival will take place from 8 – 10 May across three historic public libraries: McMillan Memorial Library, Kaloleni Library and Eastlands Library, with selected sessions online.
Now in its fifth edition, the festival returns with a robust programme of over 25 sessions featuring more than 45 thinkers, writers, poets, artists and educators from across Africa and the globe.
This year’s theme explores how speculative cartography and South-to-South connections make visible new worlds, inviting audiences to rethink boundaries, imagine alternative futures and engage with ideas that traverse geographies, disciplines, and perspectives. We exist in continuous dialogue with the world and ourselves. We have the ability to question representation and reconfigure reality through decisive action, bold dialogue, and fearless organisation.
Book Bunk Co-Founder and Nairobi Litfest Co-Director Wanjiru Koinange said, “Nairobi Litfest is a festival built by many hands and sustained by a shared belief in the power of sharing ideas. Each successful edition is a result of our guests, audiences and partners showing up for each other, for their communities and for storytelling. It is a true labour of love and we can’t wait to share NBOLitfest 2026 with you!”
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Since 2024, Book Bunk and Hay Festival Global have partnered to co-present Nairobi Litfest, creating a new chapter in the festival’s journey. Over the past two editions, the partnership has brought together more than 120 writers and artists across 75 events, reaching an audience of over 3,000 both in person and online. This collaboration continues to expand the festival’s international presence, connecting Nairobi audiences to global conversations and ideas.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said, “We are delighted to partner with Book Bunk as co-hosts of this year’s Nairobi Litfest, continuing our impactful work together in new and engaging ways for audiences in Nairobi and around the world. As an international charity, we reach millions of people every year through our one-of-a-kind Festivals, Forums, programmes, and digital platforms – it’s a joy to share this experience with our partners.
Book Bunk Co-Founder and Nairobi Litfest Co-Director Angela Wachuka said, “Five editions in, Nairobi Litfest has become a place where the most urgent conversations about literature, art and ideas find a home inside public libraries that belong to everyone. This year’s programme asks what becomes possible when we look beyond inherited maps and turn toward one another across the Global South. The writers, thinkers and artists joining us in May are redrawing the lines between disciplines, geographies and generations. That this happens at libraries restored by Book Bunk alongside the communities they serve is exactly the reason these civic spaces exist.”
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The 2026 programme features masterclasses, panel discussions, performances and a dedicated children’s festival. Highlights include:
- Masterclasses spanning fiction writing, autobiography, poetry, curatorial practice, and indie publishing, led by acclaimed practitioners including Lina Meruane (Premio Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso; Guggenheim Fellow), Dr. Nick Makoha (Brunel International African Poetry Prize winner; TS Eliot Prize shortlist), Ellah Wakatama OBE (Chair, Caine Prize for African Writing), Ciku Kimeria (Bloomberg Opinion columnist and author), Richard Oduor Oduku (BSFA longlisted), and Dr. Portia Malatjie (Adjunct Curator, Tate Modern; UCT Emerging Researcher Award).
- Children’s sessions offering storytelling, music and movement, chess, puppetry, and painting, alongside interactive “make and take” activities, with Muthoni Maina (Kenya), Orpah Agunda (Kenya), Tunde Onakoya (Nigeria), Michael Mutahi (Kenya), and Prisca Ojwang (Kenya), creating playful, engaging experiences for young learners.
- Panel discussions interrogating imagination, identity, and social change with leading voices including Alain Mabanckou (Congo), Yvonne Owuor (Kenya), Natasha Brown (UK), Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria), Safiya Sinclair (Jamaica), Inua Ellams (UK/Nigeria), Nanjala Nyabola (Kenya), Pol Vouillamoz (Switzerland/Catalonia), Mahmud El Sayed (Egypt/UK), and Marta Peirano (Spain). These conversations will explore speculative futures, political thought, ecological crisis, and the intersections of literature, technology, and activism.
- Film and curatorial practice with Moussa Sene Absa (Senegal), Maia Lekow (Kenya), Chris King (Kenya), Dr. Portia Malatjie (South Africa), and Lola Shoneyin (Nigeria), highlighting how creative work remaps knowledge, culture and possibility across borders.
Hay Festival Global International Director Cristina Fuentes La Roche summed up, “Nairobi Litfest celebrates the best of local and global literature, inviting artists, writers and dreamers to share their stories and explore new perspectives. These spaces have never felt more important and the growing collaboration between our teams continues an exciting new chapter for us in Kenya and around the world.”
The post 2026 Nairobi Litfest Programme Launches with a Celebration of Imaginative Worlds appeared first on Capital Lifestyle.
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