Shortlist For The 2021 Kendeka Prize For African Literature — Pawners Paper

The press release on the shortlist for the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature was announced yesterday, Wednesday 15th September, 2021

 The Shortlist For The 2021 Kendeka Prize For African Literature Released

The press release on the shortlist for the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature was made yesterday, Wednesday 15th September, 2021. Following the earlier released Longlist, featuring few names of the longlisted writers and their respective works, a shortlist has been released further, thereby containing fewer names.

The shortlist for The 2021 Kendeka Prize For African Literature features only five stories chosen by a panel of three Judges chaired by Lucas Wafula, a Kenyan, the Editor-in-chief, and CEO, Booklyst Press Limited. He is also a Director and Lead Facilitator at Global Editorial Centre-KE. Also in the panel is Edwige Renée Dro, a writer, a literary translator and a literary activist from Côte d’Ivoire. The third judge is Remy Ngamije, a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer, the founder, and the administrator of Doek. He won the Africa Regional Prize of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2021. 

The list was chosen from 23 African nations.

Also Read :Nigerian Writer Wins The James Currey Prize For African Literature

 2021 Short listed stories in no particular order

• Time And Bodies by Ekemini Udo Pius, Nigeria
• Au Pair by Okpanachi Irene Ojochegbe, Nigeria
• The Women of Atinga House by Fatima Okhousami, Nigeria
• The Painting From A Country In Europe by Azeeza Adeowu, Nigeria
• Water For Wine by Jenny Robson, Botswana

The top three winners shall be announced during the award ceremony to be held on the 25th September, 2021, at Fourteen Falls Leisure Lodge, Thika, Kenya, starting at 2.15 pm in FULL observance of Covid 19 Protocols. The ceremony shall be LIVE both in Facebook on https://www.facebook.com/kendekaprize/live_videos/ and in Youtube on https://youtu.be/iPsYErmLJDY . 

The first Prize is Kshs 100,000, the second and the third prizes are Kshs 50,000 and 25,000 respectively.

Also Read: Nigeria 60 Years Of Togetherness Essay Competition

Kendeka Prize for African Literature
Biographies of the Authors of the Short Listed Stories

1. Time And Bodies by Ekemini Udo Pius, Nigeria

Ekemini Udo Pius is a writer whose works have been published in Writers Space Africa and Kalahari Review. He is alumni of the Wawa Literary Fellowship and loves to write fiction. He lives and works in Calabar, Nigeria. 

Ekemini is also a final year student of English and Literature at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. 

2. The Painting From A Country In Europe by Azeeza Adeowu, Nigeria

Azeeza Adeowu is a storyteller based in Ibadan, Nigeria. Some of her works have been featured on websites like Amaliah, Brittle Paper, Hikaayat, African Writers and Muslim Girl. Her favorite pastimes are reading, binge-watching    K-dramas, getting riled up on Twitter and fangirling beautiful inspiring people. You can find her on her blog where she rants, fangirls and writes her opinions on thezyzah.wordpress.com. 

3. Au Pair by Okpanachi Irene Ojochegbe, Nigeria

Okpanachi Irene Ojochegbe is a content writer and graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, with a B.sc degree in Sociology. When not writing content, she love to write, sing, listen to music, draw, eat (yes, she a HUGE foodie), play video games, and watch movies.

Also Read:  Brunel International Poetry Prize

4.The Women of Atinga House by Fatima Okhousami, Nigeria

Fatima Okhuosami is a pharmacist and avid consumer of literature and global politics. Some of her poems and short stories are published online in-print at: The Kalahari Review, Chillfiltr Review, Jalada Africa, Everyday Fiction, Agbowo press, 101words.org, Third Word Press, Kreative Diadem, Flash: The International Short Story Magazine, Itanile magazine, etc. 

She was a runner-up of the December 2020 Collins Elesiro literary prize. 

She is a graduate of the 2019 International Writing Programme Lines and Spaces Tour held at Abuja, Nigeria. 

5. Water For Wine by Jenny Robson, Botswana

Jenny Robson was born in South Africa in 1952, but has lived most of her adult life in Botswana where she works as a music teacher. Much of her writing is for children and young people. To date, she has eleven YA novels published. One of these novels, Because Pula Means Rain, was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Youth Literature the Service of Tolerance.

Jenny also writes short stories for adults and her work has been published in magazines both locally and abroad. Some of her work has been translated into other languages including KiSwahili, German, Spanish and Korean. 

Her stories and novels are set always, firmly and with love, in Afrika.