Four African Writers longlisted for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize
Tola Rotimi Abraham (Nigeria), Yaa Gyasi (Ghana), Akwaeke Emezi (Nigeria) and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda) are among the 15 writers longlisted for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize for their titles, Black Sunday, Transcendent Kingdom, The Death of Vivek Oji and A Girl is a Body of Water respectively.
This was contained in a press release by Aspen Words on 10th November, 2020 that revealed the titles/authors that made it to the longlist.
Launched in 2018, the Aspen Words Literary Prize is a $35,000 annual award for an “influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.”
It is open to authors of any nationality, the award is one of the largest literary prizes in the United States, and one of the few focused exclusively on fiction with a social impact. Eligible works include novels or short story collections that address questions of violence, inequality, gender, the environment, immigration, religion, race or other social issues.
Other authors/titles that are in the 2021 longlist include: Susan Abulhaw for her Against The Loveless World; Rumaan Alam for his Leave The World Behind; Brit Bennett for her The Vanishing Half; Diane Cook for her The New Wilderness; Juliana Delgado Lopera for their Fierbe Tropical; Louise Erdrich for her The Night Watchman; Danielle Evans for her The Office of Historical Collections; Randall Kenan for his If I Had Two Wings; Lydia Millet for her A Children’s Bible; Brandon Taylor for his Real Life and Bryan Washington for his Memorial.
A shortlist and the winner would be announced at a latter date, with selection done by a judging panel of which another African writer, Sarah Ladipo Mayinka is a member of. Other judges include Emily Bernard, Viet Thanh, Daniel Shaw and Luis Alberto Urrea.
African literature is not alien to the Aspen Words Literary Prize. In 2019, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was a finalist of the prize for his Friday Black, similarly Lesley Nneka Arimah for her What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky in 2018.
