Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s book Obligations to the Wounded won in its category at the CLMP Firecracker Awards 2025 on Thursday, June 26, 2025.
The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) is an organisation of independent literary publishers and magazines founded in the USA in 1967. The CLMP Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature are given annually to celebrate books and magazines that make a significant contribution to literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide. Prizes are awarded in the categories of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Magazines/General Excellence, and Magazines/Best Debut. Each year, CLMP also awards the Lord Nose Award, given to a publisher or editor in recognition of a lifetime of work in literary publishing. Celeste Mohammed won the fiction award in 2022 for her debut offering Pleasantview.
The finalists for the 2025 edition were announced on Wednesday, May 21, before Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento, published by University of Pittsburgh Press was declared winner in the fiction.
The jury for that category, Luis Alberto Correa, Juliana Lamy, and Alejandro Varela, said, “Seldom does fiction so expertly capture the complications of queerness, family, dislocation, and culture. Obligations to the Wounded is a triumphant collection of unforgettable tales whose characters are as varied in identity as they are in experienced circumstances. With wit and cunning, the protagonists navigate the ever-present systems of oppression that encircle them and their relationships. Mubanga Kalimamukwento has written a stunning work of compassionate art worthy of our attention and emotions.”
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