African literature is growing by the day and the international community is appreciating the work. This is evident in the awards African writers are getting and the signing of book deals with major publishers such as Random House. Here are some of the writers who have been shortlisted for global literary awards this year and are set to put Africa on the global map in terms of literature.
Imbolo Mbue
The Cameroonian writer signed a book deal worth $1m with Random House recently and that was the talk of the town before she won a prestigious award. She is one of the winners of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award for her book “Behold the Dreamers”. The award comes with $15,000 prize money too. The ceremony in which she will get her award will be held on 6th May 2017 in Washington, United States.
Ayobami Adebayo
This writer has been shortlisted for the 2017 Bailey’s Women’s Prize For Fiction. The 28-year-old is on a book tour in the United Kingdom promoting her shortlisted book “Stay With Me”. Should she win, she will also receive £30,000 as prize money. Ayobami joins Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi whose book “Half A Yellow Sun” won the same award in 2007.
Kelechi Njoku
He got off social media since 2014 and then came back with a book that has been shortlisted for an international award. His book “By Way of a Life Plot” is one of the many short stories to make it to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The prize money is £5000 and the regional winner gets £2,500.
Akwaekwe Emezi
In her book, Nigerian writer Akwaekwe, talks about how close her mother was with her God. Titled “Who is Like God”, the book has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She attended the Farafina workshop in 2015 and her debut novel, “Freshwater” will be published by Grove Atlantic and released in 2018.
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There are other African writers who are still taking literature to the next level. We wish these four the best and hope they win.
This article was initially published by This Is Africa.
This article was written by Capital Campus Contributor Anthony Mbugua.
