The Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (In Exile) founded by Eritrean-Ethiopian-British author, Sulaiman Addonia, is a vagabond international literary festival with pan-African roots, which was launched in 2019 in Brussels. This festival aims to be an international home for ideas that migrate freely and boldly in borderless literary landscapes, and one that reflects and celebrates our societies not as censored but as they exist in reality, with all their diversity, trouble and beauty. Some of the artists involved in the 2019 edition include Maaza Mengiste, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Meron Estefanos, Minna Salami, Chike Frankie Edozien,  Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, Saleh Addonia, Amina Jama, Hazel Thomas, Vanessa Tsehaye, Desta Haile, Rachida Lamrabet amongst others. 

Sulaiman Addonia is Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. His first novel, The Consequences of Love, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, was translated into more than 20 languages. Silence is My Mother Tongue, his second novel, has been longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. He currently lives in Brussels where he has launched a creative writing academy for refugees and asylum seekers & the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (In Exile).