Adichie to deliver first Folio Society Lecture

Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is to deliver the inaugural Folio Society Lecture when The Folio Prize Fiction Festival returns next year.

The three-day festival will be held from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd March, ahead of the awarding of the prize on Monday 23rd. Once again, authors and critics from The Folio Prize Academy will feature in the festival alongside the prize judges and shortlisted authors, with names including A M Homes, Deborah Levy, William Fiennes, Mohsin Hamid and Rachel Cooke joining those previously confirmed – who include novelists Eimear McBride, Jon McGregor, Neel Mukherjee and Jeanette Winterson.

Adichie, author of novels including Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun (both Fourth Estate), will open the weekend with her lecture.

The festival programme will be structured around a series of panel discussions expelling the emotional themes that propel and punctuate a story, including betrayal, desire and conflict.

This year the festival has a media partner in the form of Harper's Bazaar, with the magazine's editor-in-chief Justine Picardie, herself an author, joining the festival line-up.  

The Folio Prize founder Andrew Kidd said: "The 2014 festival brought together great writers and engaged audiences and gave them substantial subjects to get stuck into. The result was both unexpected and thrilling, and the amazing line-up for the festival in 2015 should yield equally exciting results. In addition, we are particularly honoured and delighted that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be opening the weekend by delivering the inaugural Folio Society Lecture."

The festival is hosted by The British Library and sponsored by The Folio Society.

The shortlist for the 2015 prize will be announced on 9th February.