The Benue Book and Arts festival organized by SEVHAGE Literary & Development Initiative and SEVHAGE Publishers will take place in Makurdi, the capital of the food basket of the nation, Benue State from 20th to 22nd June, 2019. It is a part of the SEVHAGE Series of Festivals.
The festival will feature renowned writers and literary icons including winner of the ANA Prize for Fiction 2017, Professor Dul Johnson, Dr. Maria Ajima (multiple award winning writer and critic, leading voice in Northern Nigerian literature), Agatha Agema (nee Aduro) (author of The Enchanting and other poems); sensational writer and prolific author, Chuma Nwokolo, Innocence Silas Sharamang (Double Winner of the Korea Nigeria Poetry Prize), Servio Gbadamosi (ANA Prize for Poetry 2015 and Shortlist, Wole Soyinka Prize 2018); the literary administrator and author of City of Memories,Richard Ali; short story writer and social media influencer Eketti Edime, Bizuum Yadok; T. J. Benson (award winning author of We won’t fade into darkness); spoken word maestro Bash Amuneni; spoken word diva and amazing poet, Daisy Odey; Maik Ortserga; Jide Badmus (author of Scriptures), Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto (multiple award winning poet), Seun Odukoya, Ahmed Maiwada (award winning poet), Isaac Attah Ogezi (award winning playwright), Mimi Werna, Aondosoo Labe, Debbie Iorliam, Oko Owi Ocho; Torkwase Igbana; Odoh Diego Okenyodo; amongst several others.
This edition is in partnership with the African Writers of University of Sussex, United Kingdom with support from the Eunice Spring of Life Foundation and Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative, Adinya Arise Foundation, Women’s Right to Education, WRR & Praxis Magazine.
Activities at the festival include workshops, panels, book talks, and book sales at discounted rates.
The Art of Writing workshops at the festival will include a fiction workshop with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (multiple award-winning author of Whispering Trees and Season of Crimson Blossoms, Nigeria Prize for Literature Prize Winner, 2016); a spoken word workshop with a renowned master of the spoken word; and a poetry workshop with the famed Chuma Nwokolo.
There will be a spoken word slam on the final day of the event worth N100,000 and open to any spoken word artist from around the world. A call for entries for a short story competition is also billed to be out at the end of April.
New books will be unveiled to the public with engagements from the authors including Su’eddie Vershima Agema’s Once Upon a Village Tale (Shortlist, ANA Prize for Children’s Literature 2018) and Alexander Emmanuel Ochogwu’s Scarlet.
The festival director is S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema (Winner ANA Prize for Poetry 2014; Winner, Mandela Day Short Story Prize 2016; Shortlist PEN Nigeria/Saraba Poetry Prize 2012. Listed on Nigerian Writers Award 100 Most Influential Nigerian Writers Under 40 (2017 & 2018) while the festival manager is Otene Ogwuche.
The theme of this year’s edition is Changing Narratives. It is focused on building narratives can help expand discourse beyond the conventional, particularly in the light of growth, personal and communal development.
For more information, mails can be sent to benuebookandartsfestival@gmail.com
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