How bookstore, book swap, library made ALitFest fun

Last week, the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) held its debut festival, Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALitFest) at The Abuja Exhibition Pavilion in Area 10, Garki. Aside being engaging, the experience was striking for a number of reasons. One was the bookstore experience. The Bookstore The festival provided an opportunity for bookworms to purchase a […]

Last week, the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) held its debut festival, Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALitFest) at The Abuja Exhibition Pavilion in Area 10, Garki. Aside being engaging, the experience was striking for a number of reasons. One was the bookstore experience.

The Bookstore

The festival provided an opportunity for bookworms to purchase a variety of books, from children’s literature, to science fiction novels, fantasy, romance, and nonfiction. This is arguably a part of literary festivals many look forward to. 

It’s hardly news anymore that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a new publisher, Narrative Landscape (the former being Farafina). So, it sure was interesting to see all her titles on display with new cover designs. This of course had made news earlier, particularly for the African fabric design concept. There were the novels ‘Purple Hibiscus’, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, and ‘Americanah’, all on display. Also, her short story collection, ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ and a book that came out of her talks, ‘We Should All be Feminists’.   

Books like Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s ‘Season of Crimson Blossoms’ (which won the 2016 Nigerian Prize for Literature) ‘Stay With Me’ by Ayobami Adebayo, ‘A Conspiracy of Ravens’ by Othuke Ominiabohs, and ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Nigerian-American, Tomi Adeyemi were also available. Adeyemi’s young adult fantasy novel (the first instalment of a trilogy) got a seven-figure book advance and movie deal by Fox 2000 a year ago. 

There’s more: Works such as ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ by Arundhati Roy, ‘Born a Crime’ by Trevor Noah, ‘Seduction’ by John Grisham and so on. Plus poetry, like Dami Ajayi’s ‘A Woman’s Body is a Country’, Buchi Emecheta’s ‘The Slave Girl…the list goes on. 

Book Swap

The bookstore offered a rare opportunity for readers to own books that are good but suffer from poor circulation. Then also, an opportunity for book lovers to swap books. For example, you drop a book you own and have already read and pick one that you haven’t. 

So, in the book swap section there were popular works, mainly foreign ones, written by authors like John Grisham (‘The Summons’, ‘The Broker’), Susan Wiggs (‘The Mistress of Normandy’, ‘The Firebrand’), Patricia Waddel (Whispers) and many more. James Patterson and Maxine Paetro’s 5th Horseman was also available, and one would wish the bestselling author’s latest collaboration, ‘The President is Missing’, was there. But that would be wishing too soon for a book released weeks ago. 

‘The President is Missing’ is a thriller novel written by Patterson and a former US president, Bill Clinton. It has already received many raving reviews which show that much of Clinton’s experiences while president is in the story. 

Reading Lounge

Perhaps the reading lounge is another feature of the ALitFest (aside the book swap) that makes it exceptional, a small shelf for book lovers to harvest from, in between festival sessions, and read. 

If there’s any common feature in festivals, its fatigue. Everyone, at some point, is bound to feel tired, but might push on just so not to miss anything. But still, there’s that interlude where sleep or something else become usual suspects. In this case, at ALitFest, some simply sit on mats and read from the ‘free bookshelf’.

The Abuja Literary and Arts Festival had a lot to offer: there were panel discussions, poetry and prose masterclasses, art exhibition, food fair, fashion fair and several more options. It certainly wasn’t a bad start for a debut and was a remarkable way for ALS to celebrate twenty years as a platform for the arts.