September marked a few activities that were celebrating Literacy Month. I attended the South African Book Fair over the past weekend on Saturday, 8 September. The 3 day event took place at the Mary Fitzgerald Square in the heart of Newtown Precinct from the Friday till Sunday, 9 September. During the course of the week, the fair had a schools programme which saw a number of schools bring their learners for book readings, poetry and lots of other exciting activities to celebrate book week.
The event had a variety of authors, bloggers, poets, book retailers, and publishers congregated at the precinct to celebrate National Book Week and to discuss the many topics which were carefully curated by the South African Book Fair team. I attended engaging sessions on Literature: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow fascilitated by Jennifer Platt and had Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele of The Cheeky Natives podcast; broadcaster and literary commentator, Karabo Kgoleng and Author and Head Scriptwriter, Pamela Power as panelists. The second one being on Skin Deep – Blurred family ties with authors Sara-Jayne King and Rosie Motene facilitated by the uber awesome Danyela Demir discussing the struggle of identity when they grew up in adoptive families. Such engaging sessions – and the turnout for both sessions was very impressive.
An amazing day spent with fellow book clubs whom I respect and value in the literary space. Check out the pictures I shared on my IG stories highlight on the Bookamoso profile.
The Friday before I attended the fair, I had a short interview with Channel Africa. Please listen to the podcast here. Zikhona Miso and I spoke about Bookamoso and the literary space for #LiteracyMonth.
Here’s to hoping that the South African Book Fair and Literacy Month has injected my book reading with some much needed energy because I’ve been in a serious reading slump.
