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Nairobi Litfest returns 8–10 May 2026 across three historic public libraries with 45+ global writers, masterclasses, panels and a children's festival. Here's what to expect.
This weekend, three of Nairobi's most historic public libraries become something more than reading rooms. From 8 to 10 May 2026, McMillan Memorial Library, Kaloleni Library and Eastlands Library open their doors to Nairobi Litfest — a five-edition-strong literary festival that has quietly become one of the most important cultural events on the city's calendar.
Co-presented by Book Bunk and Hay Festival Global, the 2026 edition arrives with more than 25 sessions, over 45 writers, thinkers, poets, artists and educators from across Africa and the globe, and a theme that feels genuinely urgent: speculative cartography and South-to-South connections — the art of imagining new worlds by first questioning the maps we have inherited.
Speculative cartography is not a literary buzzword. It is a provocation. It asks what happens when we stop accepting inherited boundaries — geographic, disciplinary, generational — and begin to draw new ones based on shared imagination and solidarity across the Global South.
This year's festival invites audiences to engage with exactly that question: what becomes possible when writers, artists and thinkers from Kenya, Nigeria, Jamaica, Congo, Egypt, Spain and beyond look toward each other rather than toward the traditional centres of cultural power? The programme that has emerged from that question is one of the most geographically and intellectually diverse Nairobi Litfest has assembled in its five editions.
Book Bunk Co-Founder and Nairobi Litfest Co-Director Angela Wachuka put it plainly: "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."
The masterclass strand is this year's strongest argument for buying a ticket early. Sessions span fiction writing, autobiography, poetry, curatorial practice and indie publishing, led by practitioners whose credentials are as international as they are substantive.
Lina Meruane, recipient of the Premio Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso and a Guggenheim Fellow, leads alongside Dr. Nick Makoha, winner of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Ellah Wakatama OBE — Chair of the Caine Prize for African Writing — joins Bloomberg Opinion columnist and author Ciku Kimeria, BSFA-longlisted writer Richard Oduor Oduku, and Dr. Portia Malatjie, Adjunct Curator at Tate Modern. This is a rare concentration of expertise in a single weekend, and the masterclass format means genuine access — not lectures from a distance.
The panel programme reads like a wishlist for anyone who believes literature is inseparable from politics, ecology and the future. Alain Mabanckou (Congo), Yvonne Owuor (Kenya), Natasha Brown (UK), Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria), Safiya Sinclair (Jamaica), Inua Ellams (UK/Nigeria), Nanjala Nyabola (Kenya) and Marta Peirano (Spain) are among the voices interrogating imagination, identity and social change across sessions that explore speculative futures, political thought, ecological crisis and the intersections of literature, technology and activism.
These are not comfortable, consensus-building conversations. They are the kind of panel discussions that leave you rethinking something you thought you already understood.
A dedicated strand on film and curatorial work brings together Moussa Sene Absa (Senegal), Maia Lekow (Kenya), Chris King (Kenya) and Lola Shoneyin (Nigeria) to explore how creative work remaps knowledge and culture across borders. For anyone working in or adjacent to the creative industries, this strand offers both inspiration and practical framework.
Nairobi Litfest has always understood that a literary festival without a next generation is a festival on borrowed time. The children's programme this year includes storytelling, music and movement, chess, puppetry, painting and interactive make-and-take activities — led by Muthoni Maina, Orpah Agunda, Michael Mutahi and Prisca Ojwang from Kenya, alongside Tunde Onakoya from Nigeria, whose chess advocacy work has itself become a global story.
It is worth pausing on what Nairobi Litfest has quietly assembled since its first edition. Since Book Bunk and Hay Festival Global formalised their partnership in 2024, the festival has brought together more than 120 writers and artists across 75 events, reaching an audience of over 3,000 in person and online.
Book Bunk's role in this story extends far beyond festival programming. Through a partnership with Nairobi City County, the organisation has restored two historic libraries — increasing patronage by 250% — and in 2024 alone served 45,326 library users. To date, the team has digitised 396,849 archives for public access, added 19,000 new titles to libraries and created braille translations of key works by African authors. The documentary film about their work, How to Build a Library, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025.
The libraries hosting Nairobi Litfest this weekend are not incidental venues — they are the argument. Co-Founder Wanjiru Koinange said it directly: "Nairobi Litfest is a festival built by many hands and sustained by a shared belief in the power of sharing ideas."
Dates: 8 – 10 May 2026
Venues: McMillan Memorial Library | Kaloleni Library | Eastlands Library
Selected sessions available online
Full programme and tickets: nairobilitfest.com
The festival is supported by the British Council as part of the UK/Kenya Season 2025, with additional support from Open Society Foundations, Hawthornden Foundation, Amnesty International Kenya and the Caine Prize for African Writing.
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