The winner of this year’s Bessie Head Short Story Awards 2015 is Donald Molosi his story The Biggest Continent. He gets the first place prize money of 2 000 pula (about R2 900) courtesy of Diamond Educational Publishers.
He was awarded ahead of Siyanda Mohutsiwa came second for And Then We Disappeared into Some Guy’s Car and Vamika Sinha was third with Love and Other Almosts. The two went home with P1 500 for second place and P1 000 for third place.
The Bessie Head Short Story Awards rewards original and unpublished short stories in English, and are open to citizens and residents of Botswana. The facilitators include three past winners: Wame Molefhe, Wazha Lopang, and Lauri Kubuitsile. This year’s award judges were Zukiswa Wanner, Karen Jennings, and Fiona Snyckers.
Molosi wasn’t at the award ceremony at the National Museum in Gaborone, Botswana but he was rightly chuffed at the big win.
“I am excited and honored by the win! And I am encouraged that I get to be part of the celebration of one of Botswana and Africa’s most important writers, Bessie Head. The story that I submitted, The Biggest Continent, is a story I wrote to psychologically explore the phenomenon of sex tourism. What are the gains and losses involved for both the tourist and the local? In what ways does it enforce or challenge the idea of countries and borders? It is a sexy and humorous story and I am glad that it resonated with other people enough for it to win this prestigious award,” he said from his US base.
The all round artists isn’t just about the prose, ’bout that prose, ’bout that prose, no trouble. His collection of two plays We Are All Blue is currently available on Amazon for those who want to enjoy his work.
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