Nadifa Mohamed won a travelling scholarship at the UK’s Society of Authors’ Awards 2019 on June 17, 2019.
The Society of Authors’ Awards is the UK’s biggest literary prize fund celebrating poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Held annually, it is a unique evening of celebration with each award chosen by authors for authors and judged by celebrated authors, writers, and poets; many former winners themselves. Previous African winners of this prize have been Anietie Isong, Masande Ntshanga, Kayo Chingonyi, and Omar Robert Hamilton, as well as Nadifa Mohamed, Noviolet Bulawayo, and Helen Oyeyemi.
The 2019 awards were hosted in London, UK on Monday, May 17 with awards worth over £100,000 on the line. On offer were the Betty Trask, McKitterick, Somerset Maugham, ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust awards as well as the inaugural Paul Torday Memorial Prize (awarded for a first novel by a writer over 60), the Cholmondeley Awards for outstanding contribution to poetry, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, five Travelling Scholarships and the Eric Gregory Awards for a collection of poems by poets under 30.
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There was another win for Nadifa Mohamed whose novels have previously won a Betty Trask Award and Somerset Maugham Award. The British Somaliland author was accorded £1600 to enable travel and engagement with writers abroad. Also receiving the travel grant were Kathryn Hughes, Damian Le Bas, Johny Pitts, and Gwendoline Riley.
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