Last week the buzz was about South African winner of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for African Writing Songeziwe Mahlangu. He beat many other folks to win a few bob which will go a long way to help in him sorted with his bitlong for the next few weeks.
The chief judge who selected the winner was Sarah Ladipo Manyika who currently teaches literature at the San Francisco State University. Her first novel In Dependence was published by in the UK by Legend Press and in Africa by Cassava Republic Press and was featured for Black History Month by the UK’s largest book store chain. The Nigerian has published essays, academic papers, book reviews and short stories.
She has a new project in conjunction with the good people at OZY. OZY is an international online magazine that focuses on news, arts, and culture launched in September 2013 by former MSNBC news anchor, journalist, and businessman Carlos Watson. In the new series called Write, she features short readings and conversations with writers.
In the inaugural edition she reads from Queen Sugar, a novel by Natalie Baszile about an African-American woman’s unusual inheritance: a sugarcane plantation in the Deep South. Set in contemporary Louisiana, the heroine of Queen Sugar is a modern, single mother struggling with self-doubt. You can check out more about the project here.
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