The UK-based Hay Festival partnered with the Rainbow Book Club to organize the ‘Africa 39′ as part of the Port Harcourt World Book Capital (PHWBC) year projects. ’Africa 39’ is the selection and celebration of 39 African authors under the age of 40. Kenyan author, Binyavanga Wainaina, handled the call for entries and selection of the long list of 200 authors. The judges who chose the final 39 were: Tess Owueme, Magaret Busby, and Veteran Port Harcourt author, Elechi Amadi (who chaired the panel of judges). The list of the ‘Africa 39’ authors was announced at the Port Harcourt World Book Capital stand at the London Book Fair, April 2014 by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. He also wrote the foreword to the book ‘Africa 39’, an anthology of stories by the writers published by Bloomsbury. ‘Africa 39’ was edited by Ella Allfrey. The project was presented at the PHWBC opening ceremony by Izara Garcia Rodriguez representing Hay Festival. Twenty two of the ‘Africa 39’ authors were sponsored by the PHWBC project to attend the Port Harcourt Book Festival 2014.