A Small Silence by Jumoke Verissimo wins 2020 Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Best Creative Work

The 2020 Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Best Creative Work has been awarded to Nigerian poet and writer Jumoke Verissimo for her debut novel, A Small Silence.

The writer made this known herself via a tweet last night, 17th November 2020.

She tweeted: “So I got the email: ‘women’s Caucus at the African Studies Association has selected A Small Silence as the winner of the 2020 Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Best Creative Work.’ And yes, yes, yes, your congratulations are in order :)”

The Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize is awarded by the Women’s Caucus of the African Studies Association. Named in honor of Ama Ata Aidoo, the celebrated Ghanaian novelist and short story writer, and Margaret Snyder the founding Director of UNIFEM, the $500 prize is aimed at recognising outstanding books written by African women that accurately represent the experience of the African woman.

Winners of the prize could be creative writers or scholars, who have published books in English and English translation with a copyright date either one or two years prior to the year of the Annual Meeting . This year’s was for creative writing and Jumoke Verissimo’s A Small Silence has been selected as the winner.

A Small Silence (Cassava Republic, 2020) is an intimate and evocative debut, charges us to look again at the alienating effects of trauma and the power of solitude and darkness to ignite the imagination.

Full synopsis: Imprisoned for ten years for his rage against society, activist and retired academic Prof resolves to live a life of darkness after his release from prison. He holes up in his apartment, pushing away friends and family, and embraces his status as an urban legend in the neighbourhood until a knock at the door shakes his new existence.

His new visitor is Desire, an orphan and final year student, who has grown up idolising Prof, following a fateful encounter in her hometown of Maroko as a child. Tentatively, the two begin to form a bond, as she returns every night at 9pm to see him. However, the darkness of the room becomes a steady torment, that threatens to drive Desire away for good.

Jumoke Verissimo writes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. She has published two collections of poetry; I am memory won the Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize’s First Prize for a first book of Poetry, and the Second Prize for the Anthony Agbo Prize first book of Poetry, and The Birth of Illusion was shortlisted for the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Poetry Prize and longlisted for the NLNG Prize. She has also published a chapbook with Saraba Magazine, titled Epiphanies (2015). Her poetry has been translated into French, Chinese, Japanese, Macedonian, and Norwegian. Jumoke is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. programme in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. A Small Silence is her debut novel.

Congrats Jumoke Verissimo!