Garden City Literary Festival: 5 Years On

“The festival would stir interest in literature and inspire a reading culture.” Those were the words of the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, five years ago at the first Garden City Literary Festival. GLCF is sponsored by Rivers State, hosted in Port Harcourt, and organized by the Rainbow Book Club.

2012 will make five years of GLCF, five years of staying true to that aim by finding ways to make reading interesting. GLCF has featured over twenty well-known writers from different parts of the world. Through the festival's writing workshops, several budding writers have gotten the push that they needed to get their works out there for the world to read.

Annah Dornubari, a poet based in Port Harcourt, is an example. After participating in one of the GLCF workshops he published a collection of poetry titled Tears for Ogoni. Sometimes, interacting with writers who have crossed the many hurdles of publishing is all that one needs to take a leap. Maybe that was what Annah needed, and GLCF gave him that.

Ochogwu Abbas Onoja is another example. The student of the Faculty of Law at the Plateau State University was spotted by Prof. Wole Soyinka at the maiden edition of GCLF. With Prof. Soyinka’s support, Onoja represented Nigeria at preliminaries of the World Debate Institute at Legon University, Ghana. He was one of the four best speakers from the continent, and the first Nigerian to qualify for the World Final International Tournament. At the grande finale in London, Onoja was acknowledged for his oratory skills.

Preparations are now in top gear for the this year's edition of GLCF, which is scheduled for October 15-20, 2012. In the coming days we will bring you more success stories from past editions of GLCF, as well as interviews with past participants. So, "favourite" this blog on your browser. And please share the articles on Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else.

Finally, if there's anything or anyone you'd love to see at the next GLCF, drop a comment.