The Director of the Port Harcourt Literary Book festival and the founder of Rainbow Book Club, Mrs. Koko Kalango said the literary Book Festival has over the years increased the reading culture of the Niger Delta people.
Mrs. Kalango dropped the hint in an interview with journalists at the end of the one week Book festival at the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.
The Director of the Literary Book Festival stated that after a careful evaluation of the program in the past six years she is optimistic that the Literary Book festival has impacted on the reading culture and the behaviour towards book especially when there are more new bookshops springing out.
She stated that this year’s event was a special one because is a prelude to the World Book capital in 2014 in Port Harcourt.
The founder of the Rainbow Book Club said there is a change in the name from the usual Garden City Literary Book festival to Port Harcourt Book festival. The change is imperative because similar Book Festivals bear the name of their city like the London Book Festival, the Ghana Book Festival hence the Port Harcourt Book Festival to also project the City of Port Harcourt.
Mrs. Kalango said ‘Book Festival replaced the former which was Literary Book Festival which many people think is or only things within the literary World but Book festival is all en compassing.
She said this year’s event has the highest turn out of participants and there are lost of innovations which they have injected into the event, the festival is growing in scope and influence and that is what we expected she stated. The Director declared that the event has featured literary gurus such as Prof. Wole Soyinka, Pa Gabriel Okara, J. P. Clark, the late Koofi Awonor.
She, however, stated that this year’s festival show cased mostly Nigerian authors as Chika Emegwe, Abanga Wanana Winner of Africa Writer 2012, Titi Horsfall, Christy Bature Ogbetu and Julius Agu saying with this we are expanding the coast of Nigerian literature.
On the issue of the Book festival 2014, Mrs. Kalango said it has a lot of components which will mean well for drama presentation, workshops, Arts children events to draw up talents from the children and groom them up.
Highlight of the event was the poetry night that featured both young poets while Pa Gabriel Okara eulogizes his late friends in the literary world, Prof. Chinua Achebe and Ambassador Koofi Awoonor describing them as “living Souls”. ###
Pius Dukor
