The fifth edition of Nairobi Litfest is set to take place from May 8 to 10 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 edition is anchored on the theme “Speculative Cartography,” exploring how stories can reshape perspectives and map new possibilities across societies and cultures.
Since its launch in 2021, Nairobi Litfest has positioned itself as more than a “literary gathering, evolving into a cultural platform that connects communities with ideas through discussions, performances, masterclasses and book talks.”
Book Bunk Co-Founder and Nairobi Litfest Co-Director Wanjiru Koinange confirms this.
“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.
Co-presented by Book Bunk and Hay Festival, the event will take place across public libraries, including McMillan Memorial Library, Kaloleni Library and Eastlands Library.
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 of this year’s event, “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.
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.
Highlighting the importance of having such conversations, Book Bunk Co-Founder and Nairobi Litfest Co-Director Angela Wachuka said the venue was just as important.
“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.”
Adding that the theme is meant to spur conversations beyond our inherited regional restrictions.
“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.”
