José Eduardo Agualusa is Berlin’s African Book Festival 2020 headliner.

José Eduardo Agualusa was revealed as the headliner of Berlin’s African Book Festival 2020 on Friday, February 14, 2020.

In 2018, African writers met for the African Book Festival with Chris Abani as the headliner in Berlin. Hundreds of bibliophiles visited the German city’s Babylon Theatre for book presentations, readings, poetry, concerts, interviews and panel discussions. Curated by Olumide Popoola, the festival looked at transnationalism and migration in a more literary sense of “keeping in motion”. The festival returned in 2019 with author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga as curator and Ben Okri as headliner with the theme “Transitioning from Migration.“

On September 23, 2019, InterKontinental who are the organisers of the African Book Festival, which runs from April 17-19, 2020, announced the curator for 2020; musician and author Kalaf Epalanga. Epalanga is a writer and musician born in Benguela, Angola currently based in Berlin.

On Friday, February 14, 2020, the festival organisers announced this year’s festival headliner; José Eduardo Agualusa. They shared this information on their social media handles stating, “the African Book Festival Berlin announces this year’s headliner: Angola’s best known writer José Eduardo Agualusa opens the three-day literature festival on April 17th , at Villa Elisabeth in Mitte. Under the curatorship of Angolan author and musician @kalafepalanga, the African Book Festival invites once again the best-known writers, poets and artists from Africa and its diaspora to Berlin.”

 

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The African Book Festival Berlin announces this year’s headliner: Angola’s best known writer José Eduardo Agualusa opens the three-day literature festival on April 17th , at Villa Elisabeth in Mitte. Under the curatorship of Angolan author and musician @kalafepalanga, the African Book Festival invites once again the best-known writers, poets and artists from African and its diaspora to Berlin. This year, the festival is looking forward to welcoming the journalist, publisher and Angola’s most famous writer José Eduardo Agualusa who will headline the event. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and includes almost 50 books, mostly novels, but also plays, children’s and young people’s books, essays, short stories and poetry anthologies. Agualusa’s writing is constantly devoted to a wide variety of topics in Angolan pre- and post-colonial history, as well as colonial times. So far, six of his novels have been translated into English (by Daniel Hahn). His book “A General Theory of Oblivion” (Penguin, 2017) was awarded the Dublin International Literary Award. Most recently published in English was “The Society of Reluctant Dreamers” (Penguin, 2019). #ABF2020 #Berlin #interkontinental #literature #festival #headliner #agualusa #angola #booksbooksbooks

A post shared by InterKontinental (@ikontinental) on Feb 14, 2020 at 9:09am PST

José Eduardo Agualusa is a well-known name on the African literary circuit with almost 50 books, mostly novels, but also plays, children’s and young people’s books, essays, short stories, and poetry anthologies. Agualusa’s writing, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, writes on a wide variety of topics in Angolan pre- and post-colonial history.

His book A General Theory of Oblivion (2017) was awarded the Dublin International Literary Award 2017.  He was also announced the winner of the Angola National Prize for Culture and Arts 2019 winner in the literature section.