Readings this Weekend...

Toni Kan and Teju Cole have published stories (Nights of the Creaking Bed and Every Day is for the Thief) about Lagos, the city that makes people with nine lives. They'll be talking on Saturday. More details:

Date: Saturday, 19th December

Time: 4pm

Venue: Quintessence, Falomo Shopping Centre, Ikoyi

And a Christmas Bookfest...

Trilogy Book Lounge (TBL), mobile bookstore and rentals invites you to the end of year Christmas book fest on Sunday 20 December. TBL hopes to make you read. Laugh. Love. Live.

Venue: 40 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi

Time: 2pm to 4pm

Guest: Jude Dibia

More reasons to be there--autograph signing session, blow-out discount rates, refreshments and of course some gifts (Xmas is in the air!). For more information, email trilogybooklounge@gmail.com or call/text 08099553924 (to get an invite and confirm participation)

The Writer

Prize winning author, Jude Dibia, reads from his novels and short stories. Jude was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He has a B.A in Modern European Languages (German) and works in the aviation/travel sector. Visit Jude's blog here. Read a Bookaholic interview with him here.

Lagos Meets Abuja

Now all Bookaholics based in Abuja should be excited. You can hang out with Teju Cole, author of Everyday is for the Thief. This is most definitely going to be fun...we were at the reading at CCA with Jumoke Verissimo so we know a lil already. So where would you rather be?

The Writer

Teju Cole is a writer and photographer currently based in Brooklyn. He has worked as a cartoonist, dishwasher, lecturer, gardener and haematology researcher. His writing has appeared in various journals in Nigeria and the US. Every Day is for the Thief is his first novel. He also writes a regular column on Next. And famous for his Letters to a Young Writer (which we think all budding writers should google, read and re-read).

The Book

A young man decides to visit Nigeria after years of absence. Ahead lies the difficult journey back to the family house and all its memories; meetings with childhood friends and above all, facing up to the paradox of Nigeria, whose present is as burdened by the past as it is facing a new future. Along the way, our narrator encounters life in Lagos. He is captivated by a woman reading on a danfo; attempts to check his email are frustrated by Yahoo boys; he is charmingly duped buying fuel. He admires the grace of an aunty, bereaved by armed robbers and is inspired by the new malls and cultural venues. The question is: should he stay or should he leave?

The Reading

Venue: Pen and Pages Bookshop Plot 79, Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, White House, Wuse 11

Date: Monday 14th December (Tomorrow).

Time: 6pm

Pass: FREE entry (Yippie...you don't have to pay!)

Mark your Calendar...

P.A.G.E.S and CCA,Lagos continue their innovative programme of bringing the Visual and Literary Arts into dialogue. This Saturday (November 21) is going to be an interesting one at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos as Teju Cole  the author of Everyday is for the Thief - a novel set in Lagos, and Jumoke Verissimo, the author I am Memory - a poetry collection engage 12 artists in a video art exhibition at CCA,Lagos.

The writers' books will be available for sale at the CCA. This is equally an opportunity to see the current exhibition which is called Identity:An Imagined State, a video art exhibition featuring the works of Nigerian,African & South American artists. It was curated by Jude Anogwih and Oyinda Fakeye

Time: 2pm. 

So see you at CCA (9, McEwen Street, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos)

There's also Yoruba Romance

A new play titled Yoruba Romance by Tyrone Terrence-an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's A Marriage Proposal. 

Venue: The MUSON centre’s Agip Recital Hall

Date: Sunday, November 22

Time: 6pm

Gate: N5,000

Driver's Dexterity: an exhibition of photographs by George Osodi

The African Artists' Foundation (AAF) in collaboration with The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) presents: Driver's Dexterity an exhibition of photographs by George Osodi.

Venue: The Lagos Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue, Opp. 1004 Flats, Victoria Island, Lagos

Date and time: 26th November, 2009, 6pm

Who is George Oshodi?

George Osodi is a London-based photographer and artist who has spent most of his time traveling on Nigerian roads. He has captured images of the various landscapes and peoples living in different parts of Nigeria. George has also documented various social and topical issues using photography. Having trained as a photojournalist, George has an eye for a story. The story he tells now is one of intervention and faith. He captures the dramatic in an artistic, even romantic fashion. These are tales of hope and survival, bravery and bewildering actions, stereotypes and attitudes to life.

George explains: “Driver's Dexterity is a body of work, which takes on a more conceptual form than my previous documentary works. ...I explore the vulnerability of life as a contrast to the tragic beauty of the landscapes"

Letter to a Young Writer...

Teju Cole is one writer that we respect a lot on Bookaholic; having read his book Everyday for the Thief, it is indeed not hard to follow his blog on NEXT. This week, he writes a witty and interesting letter to young writers; young now, not really in age but at the heart of your writing.

Read lessons, advice and important tips that will help you on this lonely writing journey here. Have fun while it lasts!