Ellen Banda-Aaku, Masande Ntshanga, Remy Ngamije, and Mali Kambandu are on the judging panel of the Kalemba Short Story Prize 2020 announced on July 11, 2020.
The Kalemba Short Story Prize is awarded annually to the best work of original and unpublished short fiction written in English by a Zambian. The award has been won in the past by Mali Kambandu (2018) and Mubanga Kalimamukwento (2019).
The judges for the 2020 edition of the prize have been revealed by organisers. Selecting the best short story writers in Zambia in 2020 are Ellen Banda-Aaku who chairs alongside Masande Ntshanga, Remy Ngamije, and 2018 winner Mali Kambandu. Here is a bit more about the judges;
Ellen Banda-Aaku (Chair)
Ellen Banda-Aaku who has published seven books for children and two novels has also produced a radio drama and film documentary. Her first book for children, Wandi’s Little Voice, won the 2004 Macmillan’s Writers Prize for Africa. Sozi’s Box, her short story was the overall winner of the Commonwealth Short story Competition in 2007. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies published in Australia, South Africa the UK, and the US. Her first novel, Patchwork won the Penguin Prize for African Writing and was short-listed for the 2012 Commonwealth Book prize.
Ellen judged on the 2006 Macmillan Writer’s Prize For Africa, the 2013 Malawi Peer Gynt National Novel Writing Competition, and on the 2014 Writivism Short Story Writing Competition for Africa. In 2012 Ellen was awarded the Zambia Arts Council Ngoma Chairpersons Award for her achievements in the field of Literature. She is a patron of The Pelican Post, a charity dedicated to distributing appropriate children’s fiction to schools and supporting charities in Africa.
Mali Kambandu
2018 winner Mali Kambandu had a stint writing screenplays in the US before returning to Zambia. She has written short films, documentaries, and feature films, including Ulendo wa Rose, Old-time Love, Long-time Love, and The President’s Job Description.
Remy Ngamije
Rémy Ngamije is a Rwandan-born Namibian short story writer, essayist, columnist, poet, photographer, and the author of The Eternal Audience Of One (Blackbird Books, 2019). He is the editor-in-chief of Namibia’s first literary magazine: Doek! His short stories have appeared in Litro Magazine, AFREADA, The Johannesburg Review of Books, The Amistad, The Kalahari Review, American Chordata, Doek!, Azure, Sultan’s Seal, and Columbia Journal.
Masande Ntshanga
Masande Ntshanga is the author of the novels, The Reactive and Triangulum. He is the winner of a Betty Trask Award and the inaugural PEN International New Voices Award. His work has appeared in The White Review, Chimurenga, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and n + 1.
While dates have not firmed up just yet, we can expect award longlist, shortlist and winner to be announced in August.
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