Hay Festival Global for NBO Litfest. Nairobi, Kenya. June 27th to June 30th: "We need new narratives: the African in the diasporas," with Taiye Selasi, Ndinda Kioko and Mercy Juma. Green Bunk stage. Eastlands Library, Makadara, Nairabori, Kenya. June 29th at 10am.
"Writing to Remember," with Adania Shibli in conversation with Jon Lee Anderson. Ikulu stage. Eastlands Library, Makadara, Nairobi, Kenya. June 29th at 2:15pm.
Previous engagements
2023
Macondo Literary Festival, Nairobi, Kenya, September 2023
NYU Ghana, Keynote Speaker, "Reclaiming the Narrative," Accra, Ghana, October 2023
Culture Summit, Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 2023
The Arts Center New York University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, November 2023
2022
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, November 2022
Bay Area Book Festival, San Francisco, CA, USA, May 2022
2021
Emerson College WLP Reading Series, Boston, MA, USA, November 2021
Just Buffalo Literary Center, Buffalo, NY, USA, October 2021
Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn, NY, USA, October 2021
Politics & Prose, with Rabih Alameddine (virtual), Washington, DC, USA, May 2021
City Lights Booksellers, with Eula Biss (virtual), San Francisco, CA, USA, May 2021
Brookline Booksmith, with Maaza Mengiste (virtual), Brookline, MA, USA, May 2021
Elliott Bay Book Company (virtual), Seattle, WA, USA, May 2021
Toronto Public Library, with Garvia Bailey (virtual), Toronto, ON, Canada, May 2021
Books & Books (virtual), Miami, FL, USA, June 2021
2019
Erich Fried International Literature Festival (Keynote), Vienna, Austria, November 2019
Vassar College Africana Studies 50th Anniversary (Keynote), Poughkeepsie, NY, USA, November 2019
St. Lawrence University Writers Series, Canton, NY, USA, October 2019
National Book Festival, Washington, DC, USA, August 2019
Bookstan Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia, July 2019
Howard County Poetry and Literature Society, Columbia, MD, USA, June 2019
2018
Vancouver Writers' Festival, Vancouver, BC, Canada, October 2018
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA, October 2018
UVA Bookstore, Charlottesville, VA, USA, September 2018
Open Book Festival, Cape Town, South Africa, September 2018
Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Festival, with Lisa Halliday, Edinburgh, UK, August 2018
PEN World Voices, New York City, NY, USA, April 2018
Mr B's Emporium, Bath, UK, April 2018
92Y, reading with Alan Hollinghurst, New York City, NY, USA, March 2018
Harvard Bookstore, in conversation with Claire Messud, Cambridge, MA, USA, March 2018
Interabang Books, Dallas, TX, USA, March 2018
Inprint, Houston, TX, USA, March 2018
Skylight Books, in conversation with Laila Lalami, Los Angeles, CA, USA, March 2018
Book Passage, in conversation with Isabel Allende, Corte Madera, CA, USA, March 2018
Seattle Public Library, co-presented by Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle, WA, USA, March 2018
Launch of Happiness at Politics & Prose, in conversation with Sharon Gelman, Washington, D.C., USA, March 2018
Seavey Reading Series at Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, USA, February 2018
2017
In conversation with Elleke Boehmer, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, October 2017
ALA Annual Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, June 2017
Launch of Freeman's with Rabih Alameddine, Kerri Arsenault, and John Freeman, Oslo Litteraturhuset, Oslo, Norway, June 2017
Oxford University, Oxford, UK, June 2017
2016
Joint appearance with Aleksandar Hemon, Goshen College, Goshen, IN, USA, October 2016
Joint appearance with Aleksandar Hemon and Nami Mun, Woman & Children First, Chicago, IL, USA, October 2016
Joint appearance with Garnette Cadogan, Ashe Power House Theatre, New Orleans, LA, USA, September 2016
Joint appearance with Marlon James, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, September 2016
Freeman's New York City Launch with Tracy K. Smith, Sharon Olds, Valeria Luiselli, Ruddy Roye, and Garnette Cadogan, New School Auditorium, New York, NY, USA, September 2016
Georgetown University in Qatar, Doha, Qatar, August 2016
Lecture at George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA, April 2016
Durst Distinguished Lecture, SUNY Purchase, New York, USA, April 2016
2015
Lannan Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, October 2015
In conversation with Laila Lalami at the Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM, USA, November 2015
Women Writers Symposium, Nadine Gordimer Inaugural Lecture, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2015
PEN World Voices Festival, New York, USA, May 2015
Grub Street's The Muse and the Marketplace, Boston, USA, May 2015
Lahore Literary Festival, Lahore, Pakistan, February 2015
2014
FLUPP (International Literary Festival of the UPPS), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 2014
Stockholm Literature Festival, Stockholm, Sweden, October 2014
Hotel Particulier New York in New York, NY, USA, September 2014
Yale Literary Festival, New Haven, CT, USA, September 2014
Listowel Writers' Week, Listowel, Ireland, May - June 2014
Bloomsbury Institute in support of Womankind Worldwide, London, England, March 2014
King's Lynn Fiction Festival, King's Lynn, England, March 2014
2013
Harbourfront International Festival of Authors, Toronto, ON, Canada, November 2013
Texas Book Festival, Austin, TX, October 2013
Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, MA, October 2013
Politics & Prose, Washington, DC, October 2013
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, October 2013
Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA, October 2013
Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA, October 2013
Museum of the African Diaspora with the International Museum of Women, San Francisco, CA, October 2013
In Conversation with Anthony Swofford at McNally Jackson Bookstore, New York, NY, October 2013
Litprom. Cologne, Germany, June 2013
GIZ, Bonn, Germany, June 2013
The Hay Festival. Hay, England, May 2013
The Dulwich Festival, London, England, May 2013
Europa Der Muttersprachen 2013, Britain and Beyond, Literaturhaus Salzburg, Austria, April 2013
Names not Numbers, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, March 2013
Bath Literature Festival, Bath, England, March 2013
Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur, India, 21-27 January 2013
2012
Copenhagen Book Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark, 9-11 November 2012
Marlborough Literature Festival, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, 30 September 2012
2011
Miami Book Fair International, Miami, FL, USA, November 2011
Vancouver International Writers' Festival, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 20-22 October 2011
African Book Festival, Fee Word Centre, London, England, October 2011
Auckland Writers Festival, Auckland, New Zealand, May 2011
Sydney Writers Festival, Sydney, Australia, May 2011
Essex Book Festival, Essex, England, March 2011
Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature, Dubai, UAE, March 2011
Bath Festival, The Memory of Love was the 'Big Bath Read,' Bath, England, February 2011
Neuburger Museum of Art, 735 Anderson Hill Rd., Purchase, NY, February 2011
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, February 2011