Curators 2023

Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian author, poet, and the founder of the Book Buzz Foundation and publisher at Ouida Books. Her novel “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives” has won awards, was successfully stages as a play and will soon be released as a Netflix original. She has also founded the Ake Arts & Book Festival and initiated the Kaduna Book & Arts Festival. In 2022, when celebrating ten years of Ake Arts & Books Festival, she invited festival directors from all over the world to Lagos in the context of GAOLF (Global Association of Literary Festivals).

Azieb Pool is CEO and Artistic Director of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in London and founder of the Tottenham Literature Festival. Previously Senior Programmer for Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre in London and chief programmer of the WOW Women of the World festival. Azieb is a well-known journalist, author of two books, trustee of LIFT, and artistic advisor to the Manchester International Festival. Her first book, My Fathers’ Daughter, was reprinted in 2022 as part of Black Britain Writing Back series.