Kampala Writes Literature Festival 2025 Press Release

The 2nd Edition of Kampala Writes Literature Festival
Theme: Belonging
Dates: 15th -17th August
Venue: Yusuf Lule Auditorium, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

The second edition of the Kampala Writes LitFest will take place from August 15th to 17th, 2025, at Yusuf Lule Auditorium, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, curated by Goretti Kyomuhendo, founding director of the African Writers Trust. The festival is designed as an annual event to fill the existing gap for a consistent literary festival that fosters the growth and development of Uganda’s literary sector. It will bring together local writers and those in the diaspora, as well as emerging talents and established voices across generations.
The theme for this year’s edition is Belonging, and conversations will explore what it means to find home in new places through words, examine the unique power of stories to connect people to places, and delve into what it means to belong to a culture, a community, an idea, in a rapidly changing world. How do writers in the diaspora maintain authenticity in their storytelling about Africa, for instance, and maintain a sense of belonging to their motherland?

The second edition of the Kampala Writes Literature Festival will feature some of the most celebrated literary voices from Africa and beyond, including Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, who will deliver a keynote speech on Belonging. Her participation is fully supported by the British Council through its Culture Connects programme, which fosters international collaboration by linking UK cultural professionals and organizations with their global peers and audiences—enabling connections, providing insight, and facilitating creative exchange, showcasing, and touring.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a fiction writer of The First Woman 2020, (A Girl is a Body of Water for US/Canada) which won the Jhalak Prize 2021, was shortlisted for The Diverse Book Award 2021, the Encore Prize 2021, the James Tait Black Prize 2021 and longlisted for The Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021. Her first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani? Manuscript Project 2013, the Prix Transfuge Du Meilluer Premier Roman Francais (2019), shortlisted for Edward Stanford Awards (2019), Longlisted for The Prix Du Medicis (2019). Her collection of short stories, Manchester Happened (Let’s Tell This Story Properly for US/Canada), was shortlisted for The Big Book prize: Harper’s Bazaar 2019 and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.

The festival will also host Nick Makoha, author of The New Carthaginians, and Iryn Tushabe, author of Everything Is Fine Here. Both will be launching their new books and participating in panel discussions.
Other featured guests include Wendy Njoroge, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Anwuli Ojogwu, and Mercy Kirui.

This diverse lineup brings together key contributors across the literary spectrum—writers, poets, booksellers, publishers, and funders—offering audiences a rich and dynamic experience that celebrates the journey and evolution of the literary industry.

Programme Summary:
The festival will feature two writing workshops and a poetry masterclass, alongside a series of engaging panel discussions with acclaimed writers and cultural practitioners.
Panel Discussions:

1. Interrogations of Belonging: Perspectives from Makerere presented by Makerere University. This panel will discuss their works and those of Makerere’s creative luminaries to recover significant representational perspectives on issues of identity and belonging. The discussion will foreground significant voices across generations of Ugandan writers on questions of the nuanced and fluid concept of authenticity.
2. Funding for the Arts in Times of Shifting Priorities: Who Gets Left Out? presented by the German Embassy. Art has the power to create meaningful change, foster a more inclusive society, and influence perspectives. But for this to happen, artists need to be supported through funding to sustain their creative processes. Panellists will discuss Arts’ potential to create a sense of belonging among different categories of people, examine the impact of shifting patterns in funding for the Arts, and explore alternative funding models available to artists in the global south.
3. Innovative Publishing Strategies and New Models in Africa presented by the British Council. In the past decade, the African writing and publishing landscape has undergone a vibrant transformation, driven by creative and innovative models that aim to address traditional barriers that affect book publishing and distribution in Africa. The roundtable will bring together key players in the book sector to discuss what these innovative models mean for the future of African publishing.
4. Seeking Home Elsewhere: Navigating Literary and Personal Spaces Abroad. Increasingly, many African writers live and work outside the continent. But what challenges do they encounter, among them, inhabiting unfamiliar spaces, finding acceptance, and building a new ‘home’ away from home? This panel will explore how writers in the diaspora grapple with notions of home, belonging, and identity, away from their countries of origin.
5. Book launches: Promises by Goretti Kyomuhendo (Catalyst Press, 2025) and The New Carthaginians by Nick Makoha (Penguin, 2025). Then, Writers in Conversation discussion with the author of Everything is Fine Here by Iryn Tushabe.

Kampala Writes Literature Festival is organized by Goethe Zentrum Kampala in partnership with African Writers’ Trust, Makerere University, British Council, German Embassy, and Onomo Hotel.

Friday Programme

Saturday Programme

Sunday Programme