The Essence Festival – which aims to bring together movers and shakers in industry – this week also played host to the continent’s youngest published author.
Michelle Nkamankeng – who is eight years old, in Grade 3 and attends Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg – invited fans via her Facebook page to come meet her at her book signing at the event.
The young writer was lauded earlier this year after her first book ‘Waiting for the waves’ was published. She had written it when she was seven, and was now writing her fourth book.
“When I started reading, I didn’t understand the meaning of difficult words such as ‘conquer’, but I want to advise other kids that they can achieve their dreams if they use dictionaries to check words. They must know that full stops are not stop signs but guidelines to continue with the journey of reading. Books help us turn our journey of growing up. Through reading we can conquer our fears and carry on with our dreams. If you can’t read, you can’t write,” said Nkamankeng
recently.
Meet SA's youngest published writer, 8 year old Michelle Nkamankeng. She's at the Essence Festival in Durban, making a book appearance pic.twitter.com/xcO4oR3PVB
— cheryl roberts (@cherylroberts00) September 29, 2017
My book is now in #HashtagBooks, I am so happy to be sharing it! #readabook #readingisfun pic.twitter.com/URmR6kgWDf
— Michelle Nkamankeng (@michelle_n23) September 29, 2017
Nkamankeng was one of many guests to appear at the
, which included Grammy award-winning musician Jill Scott and the well-known Bishop TD Jakes.