Nairobi International Book Fair to be held virtually – Nairobi News

Sorry booklover, your favourite annual book event will be held virtually this year.

The much-anticipated annual literary event, the Nairobi International Book Fair, will be held online in a live event on Facebook and YouTube.

The event, organised by the Kenya Publishers Association, starts today (September, 24 2020) and ends on September 26, 2020.

This will be the event’s 23rd edition since inception.

This year’s theme; Any Book, Any Where, is in synchrony with the first-ever virtual book fair in Nairobi since everyone will be following the event from their homes.

With schools still closed, learners will not have the opportunity to interact with the authors as is the norm during the fair, or buy books at subsidised prices.

MAJOR BOOK FAIR EVENTS

Bibliophiles will also not have a meet-and-greet session with their favourite authors who also get to autograph their purchased books.
Some of the speakers that will grace this year’s event will be ODM party leader Raila Odinga and eminent Kenyan author and scholar Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

Today’s keynote speech will be delivered by Bodour Al Qasimi, who is the Vice-President of the International Publishers Association.

In other parts of the world, book fairs have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the major book fair events that have been cancelled include the London Book Fair, Ghana International Book Fair, Paris Book Fair and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Some book fairs that had been cancelled previously but later opted for the digital route are the Hay Festival and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.