Preview: Ben Okri at the Festival of African Writing

by Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

BOOKER award-winner Ben Okri will be launching his new work, Tales of Freedom, in Newcastle this evening.

The poet and novelist will give a reading from his book before being interviewed by Newcastle University lecturer and local poet Jackie Kay.

The event takes place in the Culture Lab on Newcastle University campus from 7pm, as part of a Festival of African Writing, running until tomorrow.

 Organised by the Northern Writers’ Centre in Newcastle, the festival is bringing together leading writers from across Africa, the UK and the US, to celebrate and discuss African writing of the last 50 years, since the 1958 publication of Chinua Achebe’s seminal work Things Fall Apart.

Both established and up-and-coming writers will take part in discussions tomorrow.

They include post-Colonial Nigerians Helen Oyeyemi, whose debut novel The Icarus Girl thrust her into the literary limelight at the age of 19; Helon Habila and Femi Osofisan; South African Zoe Wicomb, who has been shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; hotly-tipped Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava, who was included in The Observer hotlist of ‘Who to watch in 2009’; and Newcastle’s University’s own Laura Fish and Jack Mapanje.

Another highlight will be Nuruddin Farah who was exiled from his native Somalia after the publication of his novels, such as From a Crooked Rib, depicting the plight of women and their almost non-existent rights under Muslim Sharia law.

He’s the winner of the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, considered second only to the Nobel in prestige.

The writers will be in conversation with UK-based authors and academics including Jack Mapanje, Laura Fish and James Proctor.

For tickets, ranging in price from £3 to £20, email booking@newwritingnorth.com or call (0191) 222-1332.

For full programme details, visit www.northernwriterscentre.com/events