BLOCK OFF THE 4 – 8 SEPTEMBER AND JOIN US AT OPEN BOOK 2019!

June is an exciting month for us at Open Book – we finally get to share some of the names of those who will be joining us at the festival this year! Before we get to that though, a reminder to all who are keen to submit work to #WritingMyCity that this closes on the 15th June.


Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Djamila Ibrahim (thanks to Canada Council of the Arts) & Carmen Maria Machado

Elisabeth Åsbrink (thanks to the Embassy of Sweden), Saidiya Hartman, Jørn Lier Horst (thanks to NORLA) & Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia

We are particularly excited about the poets joining us from outside of South Africa this year! They will be participating in #cocreatePOETICA, as well as in discussions that form part of the core programme. Shout out to the team at the Kingdom of the Netherlands Consulate General in Cape Town for making so much of this element of Open Book possible!


Simone Atangana Bekono, Radna Fabias, Ishion Hutchinson (thanks to the Windham Campbell Prizes) and Morgan Parker

Open Book would not be possible without the local writers who join us each year. We are excited to welcome back some of our all-time favourites and look forward to getting to know some new faces!

These are just some of the names, so be sure to check our website to keep up to date about who you will be able to see this year!

If you would like any additional information about the festival, please get in touch with Frankie.

Open Book Festival is organised in partnership with the Fugard Theatre, the District 6 Museum, the A4 Arts Foundation, the Townhouse Hotel,  Novus Holdings, the Embassy of Sweden, the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the HCI Foundation and sponsored by Leopard’s Leap, Open Society Foundation, City of Cape Town, Pan Macmillan, NB Publishers, Jonathan Ball, Penguin Random House, African Centre for Cities, UCT Creative Writing Department, University of Stellenbosch English Department and the Windham Campbell Prizes