Open Book Festival

29/10/2025

📚 More conversations from Open Book Festival 2025!

Catch up on these powerful sessions, dropping every Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

🎙️ 27 OCT: Created in Africa
Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, James Murua & Rèmy Ngamije discuss their efforts to spotlight African writing with Mervyn Sloman. Brought to you by the African Literary Cities Project.

🎙️ 29 OCT: Traumatised Cities
David Cornwell, Caryn Dolley & Nthato Mokgata explore the structured violence and alienation of the urban, both past and present, with Edgar Pieterse. Brought to you by African Literary Cities Project.

🎙️ 31 OCT: Director's Choice - Literary Spaces & Belonging
Festival Director Mervyn Sloman talks to Mohale Mashigo, Lesedi Molefi & Mbali Sikakana about how Black writers are expected to perform after publishing, navigating white spaces, and why these conversations persist.

🎧 Podcast available now on all streaming platforms and on our website www.openbookfestival.co.za
💻 Watch videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

21/10/2025

📚 More conversations from Open Book Festival 2025!

Catch up on these powerful sessions, dropping every Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

🎙️ 20 OCT: Queering Intimacy
Azille Coetzee, Alistair Mackay & Kopano Maroga discuss sex and desire outside of heteronormative expectations with Cèline Tshika

🎙️ 22 OCT: The Republic
A conversation between Wale Lawal, editor at The Republic, and Will Shoki, editor of Africa is a Country

🎙️ 24 OCT: The Body Keeps the Score
Popina Khumanda, Malika Ndlovu & Jeffrey Rakabe explore the scars of trauma and the personal revolution to get to the other side with Firdose Moonda

🎧 Podcast available now on all streaming platforms and on our website: https://openbookfestival.co.za/podcasts/
💻 Watch videos on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/

15/10/2025

📚 More conversations from Open Book Festival 2025!

🎙️ 13 OCT: Fluency and Trauma
Siphokazi Jonas, Athambile Masola & Ryan Pedro explore finding language to hold one's past with Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal. Brought to you by the Centre for Rhetoric Studies.

🎙️ 15 OCT: From Pan Africanism to the Black Atlantic
Adekeye Adebajo & Bibi Bakare-Yusuf discuss rethinking our frameworks and identities to understand what it means to be Black and African with Maneo Mohale

🎙️ 17 OCT: Out of This World Into the Next
Renowned theoretical physicist Adriana Marais speaks to Jacinta Delhaize & Daniel Cunnama from The Cosmic Savannah podcast about the scientific and technical possibilities of extraplanetary settlement

🎧 Podcast available now on all streaming platforms and on our website www.openbookfestival.co.za
💻 Watch videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

06/10/2025

📚 More conversations from Open Book Festival 2025!

Catch up on these powerful sessions, dropping every Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

🎙️ 6 OCT: The Secret Keepers
Nadia Cassim, Bonnie Espie & Andrew Robert Wilson discuss how the truth refuses to remain hidden with Palesa Motsumi

🎙️ 8 OCT: Living in Crisis
Veruska De Vita, Saliem Fakir & Alistair Mackay explore the climate catastrophe and their work with Natalie Sifuma

🎙️ 10 OCT: Difficult Mothers
Antjie Krog, Lebo Mazibuko & Malika Ndlovu examine the complex relationship between independent daughters and mothers with Buhle Ngaba

🎧 Podcast available now on all streaming platforms and on our website www.openbookfestival.co.za
💻 Watch videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

01/10/2025

📚 Miss the festival? Relive the magic!

Open Book Festival 2025 sessions are now available as video and podcast recordings, dropping every Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

🎙️ 29 SEP: Banging on the Walls of the Tank Haidar Eid & Usuf Chikte discuss essays written during the ongoing crisis in Gaza

🎙️ 1 OCT: No Signs of Justice Caryn Dolley, Rebecca Gore & Julian Jansen examine South Africa's criminal justice system with Dan Corder

🎙️ 3 OCT: Building on the Past Foluso Agbaje, Zara Julius & Patric Tariq Mellet explore our cities' complex histories with Aphiwe Ngalo

🎧 Podcast available now on all streaming platforms and on our website www.openbookfestival.co.za

💻 Watch videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

17/09/2025

Your opinion shapes our future events!

We're gathering feedback to enhance your experience and show our impact to funders. Anonymous, quick, and every response counts 🙌

Scan the QR code or click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesKrVPk5X--LQffILkeiFzx83BFn2DImpc-9PHHF4Udup58A/viewform

16/09/2025

If you find yourself missing Open Book Festival, enjoy this beautiful conversation between poets Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese and Sarah Uheida, recorded by Pagecast at .

Pagecast was at the 2025 Open Book Festival, where we spoke with authors about their writing journeys and the stories they share with readers. In this episod...

11/09/2025

Award-winning writer Diane Awerbuck perfectly captures the magic of Open Book 2025 - three days where local and international authors wove their 'golden thread' of stories around time, memory, and hope. A must-read reflection on our festival. 📚

"To make sense of things for yourself and then for others is a joyous burden, the purpose of many of these writers’ professional lives. They write for collective repair. We owe these diplomats a debt we cannot repay, except by buying their books. Reading their books. Talking about them. One audien...

08/09/2025

Sunday brought the house down! 🔥

What a way to close Open Book Festival 2025. Absolutely packed. Absolutely perfect. From Tsitsi Dangarembga's powerful conversation with Maneo Mohale to the epic Writersports championship finale, from intimate storytelling to standing ovations - Sunday delivered the grand finale Cape Town deserved.

The energy was electric, the conversations unforgettable, and the community we built over three days was pure magic.

Thank you, Cape Town, for making OBF 2025 extraordinary. Thank you for showing up, speaking up, and proving that when voices rise up, people will listen.

Stay tuned! Over the next few months we'll be releasing videos of sessions and posting photo highlights from all three incredible days.

The conversation continues beyond these walls. Until September 2026! ✨

07/09/2025

We had an absolutely packed lunch time session.

👑📖 Literary icon Tsitsi Dangarembga was in conversation with Maneo Mohale. We also spoke about grief, and recovering from childhood. The depth of discussion here is extraordinary.

🎤 Join us at 4pm to close off the festival. The incredible Siphokazi Jonas is here for the one year celebration of Weeping Becomes a River. We also have multiple authors competing in Writersports - you provide the prompts and decide who did best!

🎟️ Tickets through Webtickets, via our website (links in bio) or at the door.

📷 Photo credit iSkeem Semicimbi

07/09/2025

This morning we started the final day of strong 🏠📚

From queer anxiety, to spiritual inheritance and speaking into silences. These conversations map new territories of understanding.

There are still more powerful conversations coming at 2pm and 4pm. Join us in closing the festival this afternoon.

Photo credit iSkeem Semicimbi

07/09/2025

Last night, Cape Town's boldest voices took the stage! 🎤🔥

The Slam City Showcase brought together the poets who've been battling it out monthly. Lyrical grit and brilliance in different African languages. This is where the future of poetry is being written.

Plus Better Late: the country's most brilliant, bewildering, and occasionally unhinged creatives - Yaaseen Barnes and Callum Hitchcock - together on the set of a Late Night TV to talk OBF. With special guests Dan Corder and Céline Tshika!

The final day of is already underway - don't miss the powerful close of three days of bold conversations. There are still some tickets available through Webtickets, via our website and at the door.

Your voice matters. Join the conversation.

Photo credit iSkeem Semicimbi