[1] The Garden City Literary Festival,[2] which is currently known as the Port Harcourt Book Festival was founded by Governor Amaechi of Rivers State,[3][4] Hundreds of literary fans flock to the Garden City every year for this six-day event, which includes a book fair, writers' workshops, and a variety of other activities.

[3] The festival began as the brainchild of Koko Kalango, who thought it up as a means to propel tourism numbers and heighten literacy awareness in the city of Port Harcourt and its neighboring areas.

[5] Originally scheduled for 8 September each year, to coincide with United Nations' International Literacy Day, the festival has continued to expand and has been highly rated since its debut.

Special guests included Wole Soyinka, Kofi Awoonor and Elechi Amadi, along with writers Okey Ndibe, Kaine Agary and Petrina Crockford.

[7] The second festival ("Nigeria: 50 Years of Post-Colonial Literature"), on 23 – 26 September 2009, hosted authors Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, J. P. Clark, Buchi Emecheta, A. Igoni Barrett, Sefi Atta, Lindsay Barrett, Toni Kan, Fela Durotoye, Tade Ipadeola, Jumoke Verissimo, Abimbola Adunni, and Joy Isi Bewaji.

Author Ngugi wa Thiong'o presented a keynote speech at the event which was titled Languages as Bridges: Building Network against Linguistic Feudalism and Darwinism.

GCLF guest authors such as Véronique Tadjo, Doreen Baingana, Elechi Amadi, Gabriel Okara and Prof. E J Alagoa were there to participate.

There was also the launch of A Coat of Many Colours, a book put together by Mrs Koko Kalango, alongside president Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Amaechi, both of whom contributed to its Foreword and Introduction respectively.