Benue Book and Arts Festival sponsored by SEVHAGE, is scheduled to take place in Makurdi the capital city of Benue State in Nigeria from 20th to 22nd of June, 2019.
This edition of the annual Book and Arts Festival 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, WRRM & Praxis Magazine.
The Art of Writing Workshops at the festival will include a fiction workshop with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, award winning author of ‘Whispering Trees and Season of Crimson Blossoms,’ Nigeria Prize for Literature Winner 2016; a spoken word workshop with renowned spoken word poet, Chuma Nwokolo.
The spoken word slam on the final day of the event is worth N100, 000 and is open to all spoken word artist from around the globe. The theme of this year’s edition is ‘Changing Narratives.’ The festival Director is Su’eddie Vershima Agema, Winner ANA Prize for Poetry, while the festival manager is Otene Ogwuche.
Featured writers include: Professor Dul Johnson (winner, ANA Prize for Fiction 2017), Dr. Maria Ajima (award winning writer and critic), Agatha Agema (author of The Enchanting and other poems), Chuma Nwokolo, Innocence Silas Sharamang (Double Winner of the Korea Nigeria Poetry Prize), Servio Gbadamasi, Richard Ali, author of ‘City of Memories’ among several others.
