Kalahari Short Story Prize 2020 winners Ogamba Frances, Howard M-B Maximus, Muhumuza Charles, and Christine Coates were feted in an online ceremony on Saturday, December 5, 2020.
The Kalahari Short Story Prize is a new competition from the La Cene Littéraire who are the folks behind Prix Les Afriques. The award which started this year, celebrates writers producing work who have not written a full-length book in Kiswahili, French or English.
The first edition was judged by Neema Mturo, Lello Mmasy, and Elias Mutani in Kiswahili; Armand Gauz, Hélène Tissières, Aurore Foukissa, Philippe Bonvin, Astrid Aïdolan-Ague and Flora Agnes Nda Zoa in French; and Elnathan John, Caoilinn Hughes, and May-Ian Tan in English.
The first to be given their award were in the English language which received 286 stories from 49 countries. On December 1, the judges announced the winners in that language as My Husband’s Wife by Ogamba Frances in first place, A Mother’s Face Is An Atlas That Leads You Home by Howard M-B Maximus in Second place, and The Machine by Muhumuza Charles in Third place.
The online ceremony conducted on Zoom and streamed on Facebook was emceed by James Murua and Estelle Baroung-Hughes. The evening included speeches from Le Cene Littéraire founder and president Flore Agnès Nda Zoa as well as remarks from the judges of the prize Elnathan John and May-Ian Tan.
The centre of the event was the writers who read from their winning stories and spoke about writing them, their writing technique, and so much more. You can watch the ceremony in its entirety at the following link.
Ayobami Adebayo, the winner of the La Cene Littéraire’s Prix Les Afriques 2020, will be feted at a ceremony online on Saturday, December 12. If you wish to participate, please sign up here.
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