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Doek Literary Festival

A biennial literary festival in Namibia.
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The Doek Literary Festival is a biennial celebration of Namibian and African literature that connects Namibian readers and literary artists with their counterparts in Africa and the African diaspora. The inaugural edition of the festival was made possible with a partnership with the University of East Anglia’s International Chair of Creative Writing.

In 2022, the Doek Literary Festival’s focus was fiction in the novel and short form.

FESTIVAL WRITERS

The 2022 Doek Literary Festival brought together writers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom in Windhoek for three days of sharing knowledge about storytelling and literary production.

JEAN MCNEIL
JEAN MCNEIL
Jean is a Professor and Director of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and the author of fourteen books, including six novels and a short story collection. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards and has won the Prism International Competitions for short fiction and for creative nonfiction. Her work has been nominated for the Governor General's award for fiction in Canada, the Journey Prize, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National literary awards, and the Pushcart Prize in the US. Most recently she was the winner of the 2016 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival's Grand Prize for her memoir Ice Diaries which was based on the year she spent as writer in residence in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey.

She has undertaken official scientific and environmental writing residencies in the Falkland Islands, in Svalbard, and aboard ship-based expeditions to Greenland and across the Atlantic Ocean. Her recent work includes a multimedia exhibition in 2018 on landscape and the life and work of Walter Benjamin, as well as curating and writing the texts for an exhibition, “Notes on the Anthropocene”, as part of Barcelona Gallery Weekend, in September 2020.

Jean is also the International co-ordinator for the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, heading up the International Chair for Creative Writing Africa Year.

Her latest novel Day For Night was published in May, 2021.
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FESTIVAL PROGRAM

Curated to provide the attending public with stimulating panel discussions and engaging creative writing workshops, the program for the 2022 Doek Literary Festival was filled with events that engaged readers, writers, and lovers of literature. All of the festival’s events were free to attend.

IMAGE GALLERY

21 APRIL 2022

Doek Literary Festival: Day 1. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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22 APRIL 2022

Doek Collective's Creative Writing Workshop with Tsits Dangarembga. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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Rémy Ngamije, Doek's founder and chairperson.

Doek Literary Festival: Day 2. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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Querida.

Musical Performance By Querida. Doek Literary Festival: Day 2. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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23 APRIL 2022

Zukiswa Wanner (left) & Dalene Kooper, a member of the Doek Collective.

Creative Writing Workshop With Zukiswa Wanner. Doek Literary Festival: Day 3. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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Femi Kayode (left).

Creative Writing Workshop With Femi Kayode. Doek Literary Festival: Day 3. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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Rémy Ngamije.

Creative Writing Workshop With Rémy Ngamije. Doek Literary Festival: Day 3. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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Rémy Ngamije & Prof. Jean McNeil.

Doek Literary Festival: Day 3. © Doek. © Namafu Amutse.
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