As part of TW Lit Fest 2025!

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Interviewed by Pontso Mafethe.

Raised in Lagos, Abi Daré is an award-winning author whose second novel And So I Roar is already an international bestseller and has been shortlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize, which promotes the best fiction engaging with the climate crisis. Her novels are a charming, unflinching depiction of the challenges young women in Nigera experience. Her protagonist Adunni is a determined girl who has fled arranged marriage in pursuit of education, freedom and a better life.

Abi Daré is the author of The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was a New York Times bestseller, a #ReadWithJenna Today Show book club pick, and an Indie Next Pick. She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and went on to study law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an MSc in International Project Management from Glasgow University as well as an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London.

Pontso has  worked across Africa, the US and the UK and has spent over 25 years working on social justice, particularly gender justice across the world. A zoologist by training, Pontso spent 16 years leading Comic Relief's international work on Women and Girls and is currently the Vice President of Programmes with Global Greengrants Fund. Pontso was, in 2013, one of the first cohort of the BBC's 100 Women, is a Board member on two foundations, has spoken on international panels,  and describes herself as a cultural omnivore. 

Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival 2025 is proudly sponsored by: