Aminatta Forna on Orange shortlist

And so Aminatta Forna's 'The Memory of Love' continues its onward awards march. The novel, already winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, Africa Region, has made the shortlist for the 2011 Orange Prize.

Also on the shortlist: Emma Donoghue for 'Room', Emma Henderson for 'Grace Williams Says It Loud', Nicole Krauss for 'Great House', Téa Obreht for 'The Tiger's Wife', and Kathleen Winter for 'Annabel'. UK Guardian has done a series of intros to the competing novels, here.

Winner will be announced on June 8 in London. Lola Shoneyin's 'The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives' was on the longlist but hasn't made it to this stage. Oh well.

Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011

While Wordsbody was sleeping, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize shortlists were announced...

Here's the UK-based Chioma Okereke, a writer whose face some are only just beginning to notice, after noticing her book first, of course. Especially now that her debut novel, 'Bitter Leaf' has been shortlisted in the first round of the prize, in the Best First Book category in the Africa Region. I love this photo of her because she evidently takes the concept of natural hair to brave new lengths. And having met her dad, I look at the daughter and I just see the father.

Among those joining Ms Okereke in the First Book category is Caine winner E.C Osondu, whose collection of short stories, 'Voice of America' has been reviewed by several of his peers, including Petina Gappah and Helon Habila.

Habila himself in the running for the Commowealth in the Best Book category for the Africa Region for his third book, 'Oil on Water' - the only Nigerian in this segment. Nigeria has 3 writers in contention this year, the closest competitor to South Africa, which weighs in with 7 shortlisted writers.

While I'm only going to reproduce the lists for Africa, the other Commonwealth regions are also worth a look. How else would one see that the very first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Leila Aboulela, is now shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South Asia and Europe region, flying the flag for the United Kingdom? Meanwhile, Aminatta Forna, who could comfortably have been 'British' now, has been entered and shortlisted in the Africa region for 'The Memory of Love', a contender for Sierra Leone. Good to know that when it comes to national allegiances in the world of literature, everyone discovers where the dice falls, eventually.

Regional winners will be announced next week (March 3) and the overall winners, on May 21.


Shortlists for the Africa Region

Africa Best Book
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)
Men of the South by Zukiswa Wanner (South Africa)
The Unseen Leopard by Bridget Pitt (South Africa)
Oil on Water by Helon Habila (Nigeria)
Blood at Bay by Sue Rabie (South Africa)
Banquet at Brabazan by Patricia Schonstein (South Africa)

Africa Best First Book
Happiness is a Four Letter Word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa)
Bitter Leaf by Chioma Okereke (Nigeria)
The Fossil Artist by Graeme Friedman (South Africa)
Colour Blind by Uzoma Uponi (Nigeria)
Voice of America by E. C. Osondu (Nigeria)
Wall of Days by Alastair Bruce (South Africa)

Image: Publicity Photo

Penguin Prize for African Writing - the winners

Congratulations to writer and scholar, Pius Adesanmi, who was unveiled as the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing in the Non-fiction category on Saturday September 4 in South Africa. Adesanmi won for his manuscript for a book of essays, 'You're Not A Country, Africa!'

Here's what the organisers said about Adesanmi's manuscript, which will now be published by Penguin South Africa:

"In this groundbreaking collection of essays Pius Adesanmi tries to unravel what it is that Africa means to him as an African, and by extension to all those who inhabit this continent of extremes. This is a question that exercised some of the continent’s finest minds in the twentieth century, but which pan-Africanism, Negritude, nationalism, decolonisation and all the other projects through which Africans sought to restore their humanity ultimately failed to answer. Crisscrossing the continent, Adesanmi engages with the enigma that is Africa in an attempt to make meaning of this question for all twenty-first century Africans."

Winning in the Fiction category is Zambian Ellen Banda-Aaku (left), who's also part of the Ghanaian writing community because she lived there for a while, although Penguin citation now informs that she lives in England. She won for her novel manuscript, 'Patchwork'. She was the 2007 Africa Regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story competition.

The winners were announced at the Mail & Guardian Litfest in South Africa. See more photos from the award ceremony here.

• Photos: Penguin Books SA

Kopano Matlwa and Wale Okediran share the WS Prize

This was the moment South African author, Kopano Matlwa found out she is a joint winner of the 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. The honour - for Matlwa's novel, Coconut (published by Jacana, SA), was announced last night at the grand award ceremony, held at the Civic Centre in Lagos. The South African shares the $20,000 prize with Nigerian author Wale Okediran (who won for his novel, Tenants of the House). The third shortlisted writer, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, went without. Nwaubani had already won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best First Book (Africa Region) for her much talked about novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance.

Organised by the Lumina Foundation (founded by writer Ogochukwu Promise), it was a grand event all right, but one bedevilled by dreadfully freakish, deafening feedback from the sound equipment, such that speakers often had to address the large hall without a microphone. But the award ceremony soldiered on regardless. The Crown Troupe of Africa (led by its founder Segun Adefila) provided most of the entertainment for the night. Amongst many performances, the Crown Troupe did opening segments of 2 Wole Soyinka plays: Death and the King's Horseman and The Trials of Brother Jero. The opening (church) scene of Jero was hilarious and brought the house down. Even Soyinka could be seen laughing where he sat.

Thankfully, unlike some Nigerian prizes whose award galas are dominated by useless politicians, only literary figures and, to a lesser extent, business people were given prominence at the WS award night; and the most distinguished guest of course was the man after whom the award is named.

"Thank you, Franco," said Wole Soyinka, when called by Francesca Emmanuel (member of the board of trustees for the Lumina) to speak. "I thought I'd just come here an sit down and be an icon. Icons don't make speeches," said WS. After complaining about Nigerian cameramen at events like this who don't take their shots and move on but block people's views, Soyinka humorously suggested guests use their dinner forks to poke "the soft backside of a cameraman."

More seriously, Kongi expressed concerns about Africa-wide prizes administered in Nigeria being constantly won by Nigerians. The first Wole Soyinka Prize (held 6 August 2006) was won by Sefi Atta, the second (2 February 2008) was won by Nnedi Okorafor. Soyinka noted that he was involved in an international painting competition administered from Lagos as part of the Black Heritage Festival earlier this month, and a Nigerian won that too. "It's embarrassing," he said, wondering if our style with political results was now creeping into the creative arena. He recalled judging a literature competition (names of writers withheld from him) only for the organisers to come back to alert him to the fact that a Nigerian was not among the winners. I imagine WS probably replying, "So what?"

To Okediran in the audience, the Nobel laureate said, "Wale, I'm sorry, but I hope you don't win tonight." Soyinka made clear that he has no involvement in the organisation or the judging of the WS Prize; his one commitment is to always - as long as he is able, even if on walking stick - turn up to present the prize to the winner (I guess every two years now, going by the regularity of the WS prize so far).

Anyway, Soyinka's message got through loud and clear at the Civic Centre: you can't have a Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa - won over and over again by Nigerians only. The press has also been highlighting the fact that the winners until this year, had been women - was it a women only prize? Quite what bearing any of this had on the eventual 2010 result of winners as announced by Chair of the judges, Olu Obafemi, may be debated. Other judges were: Id Shabbir (Algeria), Liesle Louw (South Africa), Sidaho Makubho (Cote D'Ivoire) and Solomon Mensah (Ghana).

Kopano Matlwa and Wale Okediran were jointly presented the $20,000 cheque by Wole Soyinka.

• Images by MW

Daddy, I won!

Breaking News: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani wins the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region).

It was phoning galore this morning as the writer heard the news from South Africa. The first call was to her papa - "Daddy, I won!" Nwaubani won for her debut novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance.

The author will now vie with winners from other regions for the overall prize, to be announced in New Delhi next month.

• Photos by Abiodun Omotoso
  

SA PEN Studzinski Award

I've just seen Guardian Prize winning author Petina Gappah's blog post notifying that the call for entries has gone out for the 2011 PEN Studzinski Award for short fiction. The award, originally for writers from the 15 SADC countries, was opened to all of Africa for the 2009 edition, eventually won by Karen Jayes.

As Gappah attests, the 2007 award started her on the road to something significant. Her second placed story, selected by J.M. Coetzee (At The Sound of the Last Post) opens her highly successful debut collection, An Elegy For Easterly, having been previously published in Prospect. The 2007 winning story by Henrietta Rose-Innes (Poison) went on to scoop the Caine Prize in 2008. So there is no denying the power of this award.

Oddly enough and in a major about-turn, the SA PEN Studzinski Award reverts to "appealing only to writers living in the fifteen countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC*)." No more All-Africa inclusivity then. Just one All-Africa trial convinced them to narrow it back down to SADC only, it appears.

As I wrote in the comment box for Gappah's blog, "I wish the Studzinski Award would make its bloody mind up."

Agary wins the NLNG

11 October: The MUSON Centre, Lagos - Debut novelist, Kaine Agary emerged the winner of this year's NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature for her book, 'Yellow Yellow'.

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See Victor Ehikhamenor's images from the award night, attended by a slew of dignitaries. 'Dignitary' in the Nigerian sense almost always means the movers and shakers of the political class; and so in this case we had former President of Nigeria's 2nd Republic, Alhaji Shehu Shagari - who has the decency after all these years to look exactly as he did back then, only greyer. Senate President David Mark - who kept a straight face when the comperes of the occasion read out his biography for tediously long minutes, right down to his hobbies - ahead of his speech - as he perfectly expected them to. No one told the Senate President he was coming to a literary award presumably, for he gave the same old speech, about the Senate's deliberations on constitutional reform - not a mention of a book. Senator Chris Anyanwu - who despite being a famed broadcaster and author not to mention a statuesque beauty over 50, might have gone unmentioned - thankfully for her, she had the good sense to have become a politician in the interim; and so in time honoured Nigerian tradition, she got mentioned in full observance of the so called 'protocols'. Ndubuisi Kanu - who didn't like his seat and left within 5 minutes (who do they think I am? he must have asked himself). King of Bonny, Transport Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke (who I might have actually liked to see in the flesh, but who was lost in the throng of dignitaries, Nigeria's once Interim leader (of the oft derided 'Fidihe' government in Yoruba popular lore) Chief Ernest Shonekan.... etcetera etcetera.

A true literary great, octogenarian Gabriel Okara, author of the classic 'The Voice' was in the audience - and went unmentioned. A crime, surely. At least Okara got to have his day when the winner was announced (Agary had been in the running with Jude Dibia, shortlisted for his second novel, 'Unbridled') and the old man, himself a Niger Deltan, got to embrace and do an impromtu lap of honour with Agary, who won for a Niger Delta novel. Some might have noted that she won for a story on the Niger Delta experience (an experience not unconnected with environmental degradation) from an energy company. The rest, quite frankly, is literature.

Kaine Agary won $50,000 - and vowed to visit Cuba before Castro dies. Easy enough, with all that cash.

• Images © Victor Ehikhamenor - more of his photos - here.

Umez, AWF & the BSU

Uche Peter Umez, the first guest writer to grace the Abuja Writer’ Forum’s newly instituted monthly readings, has won this year’s BSU Creative Writing Competition, judged by Caine Winner Segun Afolabi. Umez won for his short story, ‘The Outsider’. He wins a cash prize of £200 and a £2000 scholarship to study Creative Writing at Bath Spa University (BSU). Runner-up was Ovo Adagha who wins £75 for his short story, ‘Homeless’.

Uche Peter Umez and Ovo Adagha are both writers with whom this blogger has worked collaboratively before. More recently in Adagha’s case, and we continue to work together on the ambitious ‘One World Anthology’ which he initiated, bringing together a diverse group of writers across continents for the project; and the good news is we have now been snapped up by wonderful publishers in the UK, with a Nigerian publisher in the works.

Owerri-based Uche Peter Umez came to the monthly reading while the Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF) was still under a month old. What a way to start. The blogger was not there, but you can take her word for it. There was music (courtesy of singer/songwriter Bem Sar), a visual arts segment (thanks to artist Muyiwa Akinwolere), and performance poetry by Dekmankind. All this was on 21st June and the event took place in a mini-hall at Pen & Pages Bookshop in Abuja.

Introducing the guest writer, founder of the AWF, Emman Usman Shehu, said the AWF’s Guest Writer sessions would aid better interaction between writers and literary enthusiasts, and would help provide better publicity and distribution for literary works. In short: getting writers and their readers together, and getting the books into the said readers’ hands, in a place like Nigeria where much effort is needed still to reenergise the flagging reading culture.

Umez, a finalist in the 2007 NLNG Prize for Literature, is the author of a collection of poems, ‘Dark Through The Delta’ and a collection of short stories, ‘Tears in Her Eyes’. He began his reading with the short story, ‘Smouldered’ for which he was Highly Commended in the 2006 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Other stories from ‘Tears in Her Eyes’ followed.

Other Monthly Readings showcasing up-and-coming writers will follow from the AWF, which also holds weekly reading & critique sessions. The group is also organising literary contests and is due to launch a literary journal, Cavalcade, soon.

• Images courtesy of the AWF.

New Reads - Caine Special

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One of the niggly things about the Caine Prize season at times is that shortlisted stories aren't always widely available. So you'll be at a reading by the writers who read excerpts and engage in discussions around stories which half the audience havent read, which must be somewhat frustrating for both writers and readers alike. Especially when the story in question is not available online. Not so this year.

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Thanks to New Internationalist, publishers of the Caine anthologies, you can read of all 5 stories online (downloadable in pdf format).

One of these stories will win the Caine Prize tonight...

• Read Mallam Sile by Mohammed Naseehu-Ali (Ghana).
• Read For Honour by Stanley Onjezani Kenani (Malawi).
• Read Poison by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa).
• Read The Day of the Surgical Colloquium by Gill Schierhout (South Africa).
• Read Cemetery of Life by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu (Nigeria).

God of Poetry, God of the Caine?

Congratulations to Uzor Maxim Uzoatu who's Nigeria's flagbearer for this year's Caine Prize. His story, Cemetery of Life, published in Wasafiri 52 earned him the nod for the author of 'God of Poetry'.

Joining him on the shortlist are Ghanaian Mohammed Naseehu Ali (for Mallam Sule); Malawian Stanley Onjezani Kenani (his story: For Honour); South African Henrietta Rose-Innes is shortlisted for the second time (for Poison); and she's joined by her compatriot, Gill Schierhout (for The Day of the Surgical Colloquium).

Judges are (1) Chair Jude Kelly (who is the artistic director of the South Bank Centre - where the Caine writers will read on July 6); (2) Hannah Pool; (3) Mark McMorris; (4) author of In the Country of Men Hisham Matar; and Jonty Driver.

The 2008 Caine Prize winner will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on July 7.

The IRN Awards

News Release

More than one hundred submissions were received for the first IRN collection; and, entries were highly competitive. After a rigorous assessment of all works, especially based on how well the theme of theorizing eroticism in Africa is captured, these contributors won the IRN awards for their outstanding bodies of work.

Shailja Patel: The IRN-Africa Fanny Ann Eddy Award for the poem “Screaming.” “Screaming” is striking because Patel illustrates how damage to the body is one of the many tools oppressive patriarchy uses to impose control over people who dare step away from the margins of its strictures.

Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright and theatre artist; she has performed her work in venues ranging from New York's Lincoln Centre, to Durban's Poetry Africa Festival. Her one-woman show, Migritude, received Ford Foundation funding for a Kenyan tour, and an NPN Creation Fund Award. CNN describes Shailja as an artist "who exemplifies globalization as a people-centered phenomenon of migration and exchange."The Gulf Today (United Arab Emirates) calls her "the poetic equivalent of Arundhati Roy."

Crispin Oduobuk-Mfon Abasi: The IRN-Africa Outstanding Award in Creative Writing for the short story “Two-Step Skip.”

“Two-Step Skip” is a unique narrative set in Abuja,Nigeria; it tells the story of a young gay man who arranges to secretly meet with a potential lover he meets on line. He is, however, brutally attacked and almost raped for being gay.

Crispin Oduobuk-MfonAbasi lives in Abuja, Nigeria. His work is included in Workshop Engelsk VG1 Bygg-Og Anleggsteknikk (eds. Janniche Langseth, Hege Lundgren, Jeanne Lindsay Skanke) and In Our Own Words Volume 6 (ed. Marlow Peerse Weaver), as well as several other anthologies. BBC Focus on Africa and Genevieve are some of the other markets where his work has appeared. Also, his stories have been published by East of the Web, Eclectica, Gowanus, 42Opus and other literary sites. Crispin’s "Petrovesky and Polarbywall" was named a Notable Story in the 2005 Million Writers Award. The story was also named one of the ten finalists in the 2006 Best of the Net. Moreover, his "Maiduguri Road" was named a Notable Story in the 2006 Million Writers Award.

Victor Ehikhamenor: The IRN-Africa Outstanding Award in Visual Arts. Victor's images and drawings are haunting, and leave lingering impressions; his art makes very strong statements.

Victor Ehikhamenor was born in Edo State, Nigeria. He is an artist and a writer whose works have been widely exhibited and published. He is currently an MFA fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Yvette Abrahams’ essay “Your Silence Will not Protect You”: Silence, Voice and Power Moving Beyond Violence Towards Revolution in South Africa (# Khib Omsis) won the IRN-Africa Desmond Tutu Award. This award goes to the outstanding essay submitted to OUTLIERS. In this essay, Yvette offers a theoretical framework through which identity and specifically lesbian identity in Africa is theorized in ways that deconstruct preconceived ideas about feminism, patriarchy, empowerment, politics of embodiment and social activism. This essay speaks [to] both the academy and the non-academic worlds and will inevitably generate more discussions and contributions to the understanding of queerness in Africa. The strength of this essay is that none of the following, silence, protection, violence, voice, power and revolution is assumed. Instead, Yvette works us through all the steps and argues for every position she takes or do not take. “Your Silence Will Not Protect You...” enters the pantheon of classics in related subject on its own right.

Yvette Abrahams was born in Cape Town in 1963 to parents of slave and Khoekhoe descent. She grew up in exile and returned home in 1983. Since then, she has joyfully tried to practice “the constant vigilance” which she affirms is the price of freedom. She was trained as a historian, and after many years in the academia, she became the Commissioner of Gender Equality. She [got] married to a dyke on Freedom day (April 27, 2007) and now spends most of her time off the Cape Coast planting enough trees to offset two lifetimes of carbon emissions. She has no cat.

Notisha Massaquoi's essay "The Continent as a Closet: The Making of an African Queer Theory" won the IRN-Africa Audre Lorde Award.

This selected essay captures the notion of 'home', citizenship and belonging for queer immigrants and refugees. She elegantly bridges African queer identities with accounts of "complex, dynamic, and overlapping geographies while interrogating transnational subjects, their nation of origin and destinations as well as their understanding of sexual dynamics." The beauty of the essay is that both Africa as a "continent" as queer identities are revisited and re-articulated from and beyond the "intellectual landscape of academic theories and practices." The queer project she imagines functions discursively as anarrative of Africa's political history boldly resisting oppression, and embodying utopian stories and possibilities of life as queer Africans on the continent.

Notisha is originally from Sierra Leone and currently resides in Canada. She is the executive director of Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Center for Black women of color and a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto. Her most recent publication is the edited Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought. She is currently working on a second collection with Selby K. Thiam entitled None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa.

The IRN-Africa Simon Nkoli Award goes to Professor Femi Osofisan 's article "Wounded Eros and Cantillating Cupids: Sensuality and the Future of Nigerian Literature in the Post-Military Era."

In this essay, Professor Osofisan retraces the shifts from erotic abstract symbolism to flesh, "as breathing, living, and corporeal presence, capable of sensual desire and carnality, and vulnerable to violation" in Nigerian Literature in the post-Military era. He uncovers the ideological erotic stereotype underneath early Nigerian Literature --and pan-African Literature-- and discusses why and how the option for "full disclosure and unrestrained loquacity" has dominated the post-Military era. He also analyzes the impact of globalization and globalized "American values" and the possibility that erotic full disclosure in Literature may not escape the intrusive lenses and the probing inquisitiveness of the West. However, what is seen as "license" may itself be attributed a judgment value that is telling about our Christian upbringing, which out of misplaced zealousness, systematically expunge the vulgar. Professor Osofisan deconstructs the fortress of the insensible and embraces the new bloom and heteroglossia of wounded Eros with measured skepticism. To interrogate Eros in Nigerian Literature and African society, one must grapple with the multiplicity of subtle strategies and channels through which Eros is represented as well as the inadequacies and brutalities committed in its name. The beauty of the essay is that it not only highlights the shift from abstract symbolism to full embodiment of Eros in the post-military era in Nigeria, it also reminds us that such disclosure is not costless when the market of modernism collides with the lingering pain of humanism in our society.

Professor Femi Osofisan is a renowned African Playwright and professor of drama. He is currently in the department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan where he has taught many dramatists for many years.

Sybille Ngo Nyeck and Unoma N. Azuah.
Editors, OUTLIER collection.

Fly Girl

This is Sade Adeniran photographed by the blogger at Goldsmiths College, London, on 13 March 2008 at the 'On Whose Terms' conference. Earlier that day in Kampala, she had been announced as this year's Africa Regional winner of the Best First Book (it was an all-Nigerian affair, as Karen King-Aribisala also won the Regional Best Book Prize for her novel, 'The Hangman's Game). This, for a debut novel, Imagine This, that she self-published. Things could have been a whole lot worse. Earlier last week my interview with Sade Adeniran was published on BBC Africa Beyond. Excerpt below.
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Sade Adeniran, talking about the her road to (self) publishing.

Where to start? The manuscript took 5 years to write and when I finished, I gave it to friends and acquaintances to read. Their feedback gave me the courage to submit to publishers. I did this with little success, however some of the replies were encouraging. I figured I needed a new strategy; so I went into self-publishing. I remember reading about GP Taylor who self-published, then got a book deal. I thought, that could be me. I knew nothing about the business; I was just focused on getting the book out. So I got myself an ISBN number, found a printer, learnt about book formats and paper, got an editor and proof-reader and cajoled a friend into designing not only the book but also my website.

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That was the easy bit. Getting 'Imagine This' into bookshops was a Herculean task that I never managed to solve. So I called up Independent bookshops like Crockatt & Powell, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights and The Pan Bookshop (before it closed). After seeing the finished product and reading 'Imagine This', C&P and Mr B’s ordered copies and are pushing the book. It's available on Amazon; and you can place orders for copies from WH Smiths, Borders and Waterstones.
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• Read the full interview.

• Author's website

The John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition

Grainy images tell their own tales too... My friend snapping the moment with my camera was too far away in the audience to get a clear image. Here's me being presented as the winner of the John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition - at the 'On Whose Terms Conference, Goldsmith's College, London on 13 March 2008. The presentation was made by Sarah White (on the podium) and to the left in blue is Dr Margaret Busby OBE, chair of the panel of judges of the competition. Other judges were: R. Victoria Arana (of Howard University, USA), Kadija George (publisher of Sable Litmag) & novelist Courttia Newland. I won £150, 3 months free subscription to the New Nation newspaper and publication of the winning story - "Written in Stone" in Sable Litmag.

The Presentation

Dr Deirdre Osborne, organiser of the On Whose Terms Conference on the short story, founded this year in memory of John La Rose

"My sincere thanks to Sarah White and the trustees of the George Padmore Institute for agreeing that it was indeed fitting to put together a short story competition in his memory."

Sarah White on John La Rose and the competition

"I was John La Rose’s partner for 41 years [audience claps]. John was a poet, a publisher, a cultural and political activist. He was born in Trinidad in 1927 and came to England in 1961. He founded New Beacon Books in 1966, and was a co-founder with Kamau Braithwaite and Andrew Salkey of the Caribbean Artist Movement that same year. Over the years he was a leading member of numerous important organisations including the Caribbean Education in Community Workers Association, The Black Parents Movement, The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners from Kenya, the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, and the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books. In 1991 he founded the George Padmore Instititute, a library, archive and educational resource centre of black material – Black British materials. He had wide international contacts and always kept in close touch with Trinidad... He died 2 years ago, in 2006. I am sure John would have been delighted to have a short story award in his name. Though he himself did not write short stories, or novels for that matter, he did enjoy reading them, and he valued highly the craft they entailed. In the 2 volumes of New Beacon Reviews, a critical journal which he published and edited in the 1980s, he always insisted on including a short story. John himself was a poet and essayist, and a very careful wordsmith, spending long hours fine-tuning his writing. Such skills are also needed for short story writing to portray a scene, an idea or a relationship – and then to be able to develop and bring it to a conclusion in the limited space available... He’d have been very appreciative of the skills that are needed for short story writing."

Margaret Busby OBE on the judging

“Of course we wanted to bear in mind that the winning story had to have some element of the ideals of John La Rose.”

[She recommended the George Padmore Institute website for those wanting to know more about the ideals of John La Rose.]

“Eventually we decided to come up with a list that we thought represented the best of the stories submitted and what we were looking for in the stories was that, first of all, well crafted with a compelling beginning, middle and end; but also that they had stimulating, exciting writing style, interesting idea and some sort of imagination – and again relevant to John’s ideals. So we came up with a list of 10 stories we would put forward as highly commended and out of those 10 we’d choose the winner. Those stories were:

1. Written in Stone - by Molara Wood
2. Bam Bai Ah Go See Yam - by Kela Francis
3. Shades - by Nancy Downie
4. Metaphor of Locusts - by Richard Ugbede Ali
5. Hope's Acceptance - by Kobina Graham
6. The Sacred Lake - by Unoma N. Azuah
7. The Seven Thirty-Eight - by Jamien Nagadhana
8. Kernig's Sign - by Niran Okewole
9. Maude Hastings - by Yewande Omotoso
10. The Wedding - by Ayla El Assad"
    

Sarah White (making the presentation)

"I am very happy to congratulate the winner out of those 10 and that is Molara Wood, for “Written in Stone”. I have read the story, I think it was excellent."

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[She thanked Deirdre Osborne “for all the work she’s done” and thanked the judges.]

Accepting, I said...

"In this story, there’s a woman who has been sidelined by history and in the narrative her voice comes through very, very strongly. And, not only is she insisting that her story be told, she is setting the terms under which that story should be told... I’m really, really glad that the judges felt for it. I’d like to thank the panel of judges and I’m really, really honoured to be getting this in memory of John La Rose. Thank you."

Animal's People in A Golden Age

Regional Winners of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Europe & South Asia)

From the Press Release

Professor Makarand Paranjape, Chair of Judges, comments:

"The competition for the best book was stiff, but Animal's People by Indra Sinha won out in the end for its fiercely original, zesty style, coupled with seriousness of theme and intent.

For the best first book, A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, an evocative and sensitive narration of the creation of Bangladesh through the life of a courageous and unconventional mother, emerged as the winner.

Humane, compassionate, and consistently impressive in their use of language and technique, telling of major historical events through the viewpoints of underprivileged but resolute protagonists, both books are, ultimately, stories of survival and hope. This is why I believe they will appeal to a wide variety of readers."

The announcement of the two winners took place at Goldsmiths, University of London. Upon winning his award, Indra Sinha, who was recently shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007 for Animal's People, commented:

"It's a great honour. I am delighted for Animal and his friends".

Tahmima Anam, whose first book A Golden Age won the Best First Book Award, commented:

"I'm absolutely thrilled at this news; over the years, many of my most cherished authors have been winners of the Commonwealth Prize, and I'm deeply honored to have been given the chance to be counted among them. I'm particularly proud to be representing my country as the first regional winner from Bangladesh."

• Images © MW

2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize Shortlists

Congratulations to Sade Adeniran (above) who is shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) for her first novel, Imagine This. Remarkable, considering that Adeniran self-published herself as a last ditch effort to get her book out there.

Congratulations too to Dayo Forster who's also shortlisted for Reading the Ceiling. Forster joins Adeniran and 4 others on the shortlist in the Best First Book category. Zakes Mda (South Africa; for 'Cion') and Karen King-Aribisala (Nigeria; for 'The Hangman's Mistake') are shortlisted in the Best Book category.

Full shortlists available online. Regional winners will be announced on 13th March, and Overall winners on 18th May.

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  Image - Sade Adeniran photographed by MW @ The Harlesden Library, London; 4 October 2007.
  
  

Zadie Smith "hypocritical", book people say

Last week Zadie Smith said...
“Most literary prizes are only nominally about literature. They are really about brand consolidation for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies and even frozen food companies.”
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That was in her note explaining that, of the 850 entries to the Willesden Herald short story competition, none was good enough for the £5000 prize. Turns out the writers weren't the only ones scratching their heads.
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The Sunday Times broke down Smith's comments thus
Although she does not name names, the prizes to which she is referring are clear from the types of company she mentions. The beer company must be Whitbread, which until 2006 ran the successful Whitbread book awards. Smith won its first novel prize in 2000 for White Teeth, which was then made into a Channel 4 drama series.
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The phone company must be Orange. In 2006 Smith won its prize for fiction with On Beauty. It is a women-only award. The coffee company must be Costa, a division of Whitbread that sponsors a series of book awards. The overall Costa prize (there are also five category prizes) was won last month by A L Kennedy for her novel Day.
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The frozen food company must be Iceland, which sponsored the Booker prize before Man, the hedge fund firm, took over.


And publishing figures have a thing or two to say about Smith's comments.
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Ion Trewin, organiser of the Booker Prize: "Her remarks are absolutely ridiculous. Why has she been happy to accept money from these prizes and sponsors, whom she now attacks? And I’d also like to know if her publisher is going to put her forward in future for literary awards.”
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Joanna Trollope: “Actually these prizes rescue some books which could simply end up on publishers’ slush piles. So Zadie Smith, whom I think is a good writer, is very wrong. Also, in an increasingly philistine country the more that art and commerce can and do come together, the better.”
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• The Telegraph said publishing figures have branded the author of White Teeth "hypocritical".

Willesden Herald Competition Stunner

If you are one of the 800 entrants for the 2008 Willesden Herald Short Story Competition, well, better luck next year. The £5000 prize judged by Zadie Smith will not be awarded this year because organisers and Ms Smith, er, judged - that none of the stories was good enough.

Extract from Zadie Smith's statement
For I have thought, reading through these entries, that maybe the problem with this prize is that my name is attached to it. To be very clear: just because this prize has the words Willesden and Zadie hovering by it, does not mean that I or the other judges want to read hundreds of jolly stories of multicultural life on the streets of North London. Nor are we exclusively interested in cutesy American comedies, or self-referential post-modern vignettes, or college satires. To be even clearer: if these things turn up and are brilliantly written, they will not be ignored. But we also welcome all those whose literary sympathies lie with Rimbaud or Capote, with Irving Rosenthal or Proust, with Svevo or Trocchi, with Ballard or Bellow, Denis Cooper or Diderot, with Coetzee or Patricia Highsmith, with street punks or Elizabethans, with Southern Gothic or with Nordic Crime, with Brutalists or Realists, with the Lyrical or the Encyclopedic, in the ivory tower, or amongst the trash that catches in the gutter. We welcome everybody. We have only one principle here: MAKE IT GOOD. So, let’s try again, yes?

And no doubt many will "try again", for the chance to be judged 'good enough' by Zadie Smith. For now, they're just stunned at the news, a real anti-climax to the competition whose winner would have collected the prize this month, as well as a real boost to their writing careers. There is speculation about the existence of a shortlist, but not even that has been made public thus far. Dissapointed writers have been leaving comments on the Willesden Herald blog. An update has also been posted on the site.

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Update: Wednesday 6th February 2008

With the furore that greeted the decision not to award a prize to any of the entries (we now know there were 850 short stories from all over the world) and the non-publication of the shortlist, the organisers have now released their last word on the matter. They decided, after all, to publish the 'shortlist' of 10 writers, and to share the cash prize £500 apiece between them. But first,they had to go and check that the shortlisters were cool with this, given the negative reactions to yesterday's announcement. Meanwhile, some speculated as to whether those shortlisted would wish to be forever known as writers whose stories were so "mediocre" that no top prize could be considered. We now know the answer: the 'shortlisted' writers did not want the 'honour'; in the main, they said NO to both publication and £500 cash.

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From the Willesden Herald update

In response to the negative comments left about the decision not to award the prize, Zadie Smith decided that the money should be split, to help counter the suggestions that the short-listed writers were somehow ‘mediocre’. There was no intention at all of suggesting such a thing and any close reading of Zadie’s statement will show this to be false. Being the best out of 850 entries is no small feat.

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It is worth mentioning that there are two standards here that we can look to:

• to be the best of a batch; and

• to be worthy of first place in a competition which celebrates outright excellence.

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The latter is a much higher aspiration than the former; however, the former is something to be proud of.

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When the decision was made to split the prize money, the short-listed writers were contacted again and most of them said that they did not want their names or stories to appear and did not want any prize money. They told us to fuck off. Which is fair enough.

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In conclusion, many writers agree that if the organisers did not consider any of the stories worthy of the not inconsiderable cash prize, they had every right not to award it. Some, however, have issues with the handling of the result's announcement.

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Update: Thursday 7th February

More on the fallout from the Willesden Herald's own 'Super Tuesday' - and the writer Kay Sexton has revealed herself as one of the "infamous 10" who were "not good enough" for Zadie Smith.

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"My story and I still think we’re 'good enough'" - she insists.

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"I'm old and egotistical enough to have confidence in my own opinion, rather than Zadie's."

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Hear hear.

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Yet another update - Thursday 7th PM

The unawarded prize money will be donated to charity. And there's talk of the competition being wound up. Should that happen, this year's fiasco would have been the death knell...

• The Guardian Book Blog.

Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu...

Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, is a winner in this year's Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa.


Author of 2 published novels (Zahrah the Windseeker & The Shadow Speaker), Okorafor-Mbachu won the Junior Category Award (and a $5000 cash prize) for her unpublished book, Long Juju Man.


Other winners are South Africa's Jayne Bauling in the Senior Category & Ghanaian Ekow Kwegyir Bentum won the New Children's Writer Award.


There were 400 entries representing 16 African countries; and judges included Jack Mapanje & Helen Oyeyemi.

Per Contra Prize

From Per Contra

Per Contra has featured winners of The MacArthur Award, the Caine Prize, the Orange Prize, the Walt Whitman Award, the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Pushcart Prize and more. Per Contra has published authors from the United States and North America, South America, Europe, Africa and South Asia .

Our March 2008 issue features former poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) Daniel Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize Winning former poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet John Updike, poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) William Jay Smith and O. Henry Prize winner Stephen Dixon, as well as great emerging writers from around the world.

You may have seen our ad in the Fall 2007 Edition of Poets and Writers.

We are now accepting submissions for the 2008 Per Contra Prize. Because of the public interest generated by our lineup for the Spring, we are working hard to find talented emerging writers to submit manuscripts for the Prize. The grand prize winner will be published in our Spring 2008 issue.

Grand Prize is $1,000 and publication at our regular professional rates. The top ten stories submitted will be published at our regular professional rates during the 2008 editorial calendar.

Deadline for Entry is January 31, 2008. This is an excellent opportunity for an emerging writer to be published with several elite writers and poets.

• How to enter.