In 2008 we began the annual Garden City Literary Festival, renamed the Port Harcourt Book Festival in 2014.

This cultural combo grew from a three-day affair to a six-day one comprising a book fair, workshops, symposia, author readings, open mic sessions, drama performances.

Keynote speakers have included Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Ghana’s Kofi Awonoor and Ama Ata Aidoo, Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ivorian author Veronique Tadjo and American Civil Rights Activist Jesse Jackson, American writer Petrina Crockford and Jamaican writer Lindsay Barrett.

Children are an important part of the festival and special workshops, reading sessions and scheduled visits to the book fair are part of the events planned for them. Children also participate in various cultural programmes and have an opportunity to showcase their talent on the last day of the festival.