Brittle Paper African Literary Excellence Awards 2024 announced.

The Brittle Paper African Literary Excellence Awards 2024 were announced on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.

In 2010, Brittle Paper was started by Nigeria-born USA-based academic Ainehi Edoro-Glines as a new voice in an African literary space starting to show itself on the world stage. The platform set up the Brittle Paper African Literary Person of the Year to celebrate a literary personality who elevated African literary culture in outstanding ways in 2015. The winners were Nnedi Okorafor (2015), Petina Gappah (2016), Lola Shoneyin (2017), Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (2018), Ellah Wakatama Allfrey (2019), and Zukiswa Wanner (2020).

After that year, they were renamed the “Persons of the Year” and then the “African Literary Excellence Awards.” The newly expanded accolades were given to the African Literary Person of the Year, Writer-Activist of the Year, Publishing House of the Year, Literary Platform of the Year, and Social Media Influencer of the Year. They were conferred in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The Brittle Paper African Literary Excellence Awards 2024 winners are:

• African Literary Person of the Year: Othuke Ominiabohs Masobe Books, for transforming Nigerian publishing by creating a thriving business model that has signed 117 authors, published over 100 titles, and sold more than 100,000 books in just five years.
• Publishing House of the Year: Mkuki na Nyota for over 40 years of championing Kiswahili literature through original works and translations
• Literary Advocate of the Year: Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie for centering diversity and neurodivergent representation in children’s literature through her work in literature and media.
• Literary Platform of the Year: Book Dash, a South African non-profit that has put 4.4 million books into the hands of children and, thus, built a love for reading across communities.
• Social Media Influencer of the Year: Ikechukwu Chielo for creative book reviews that give readers new ways of experiencing African literature.

Read more about the award winners and their citations here.

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