World Book Day event set to celebrate local authors

The Gaborone Book Festival Trust (GBF) will host a book night to celebrate the literary work of Batswana authors on the 23rd April 2018, at UB Library Auditorium. World Book Day was created by UNESCO in 1995 to ‘pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity’.
The 2018 theme is ‘Share a story’,and the GBF Trust has selected four Batswana authors, who will be in conversations and talks with the audience on the night. Furthermore, there will be book sales, signings and a meet and greet with the authors after the main programme.
“We have decided that for this 2018 edition, we will focus on the literary work of Batswana because from a GBF Trust perspective, our local authors’ work is grossly under exposed and under-appreciated. This is just one of the numerous events we will host to give Batswana authors’ platforms to showcase their books, meet readers and sell their books” said Keikantse Phele, co-founder of GBF Trust.
The event will feature Lauri Kubuitsile who is an established and celebrated author across the continent, Modirwa Kekwaletswe who has written an important and relevant book about the life and times of Ratsie Setlhako. Kagiso Madibana and Thabo Katlholo will engage in a conversation about the life of being young and being an author in Botswana.
Beyond this inaugural event, the GBF Trust will host monthly book meetings in May-July, a main book festival spanning 2-3 days in September and another book night to close off the year.Various local authors will be featured throughout the year in all these events to expose their books to readers. Additionally, the Trust runs a students and learners programme that encourages them to read and write.
“We are further looking for like- minded partners in government, corporates, companies and individuals who are keen to support our initiatives financially and in kind .Reading is an essential part of our lives, for children and adults. For children, those who read daily are able to expand their general knowledge, grammar, appreciation of other cultures and being open minded”
The World Book Night is made possible by the support of Choppies Group of Companies, and Botswana’s leading media houses – Botswana Gazette and The Business Weekly and Review. Gaborone Book Festival will be held from the 20-22 September 2018.