THE  NOMA AWARD FOR 
PUBLISHING IN AFRICA

NIGERIAN WRITER OF GENIUS DISPLAYING COMPLETE MASTERY OF HER CRAFT WINS 2009 NOMA AWARD FOR HER COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa announces that Sefi Atta has won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa 2009 for her collection of short stories Lawless and Other Stories. The book was published in 2008 by Farafina, an imprint of Kachifo Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria.

The Jury’s citation reads:

“This collection of short stories and a novella represent the work of a first class writer. The gripping stories of the Nigerian quotidian are of consistently high quality and uniformly outstanding. The writer has an immense gift of language and mastery of narrative in which she redefines the Nigerian social imaginary. She tells her stories in different voices and from the perspective of a whole range of memorable characters, balancing content and form. She does not romanticise or demonise the world of her characters: her genius is to deprive the stories of their sensationalism, allowing her to display complete mastery of her craft. One of the most original, imaginative and gifted fiction writers in Africa, and arguably the best of her generation.”

Sefi Atta was educated in Nigeria, the UK and US, and is a former chartered accountant and a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Her short stories have been published in literary journals, her radio plays have been broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and she has received many awards for her writing. She was the winner of the PEN International 2004/5 David T.K. Wong Prize, and won the first Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2006 for her debut novel Everything Good Will Come. More information is at http://www.sefiatta.com

The US$10,000 Noma Award, under the auspices of UNESCO, will be presented to Sefi Atta at a special ceremony in Africa, details of which will be announced later.

43 publishers from 12 African countries submitted titles for the 2009 competition. The Jury singled out a further three titles for Honourable Mention. The list is attached.

The Noma Award Jury is chaired by Walter Bgoya from Tanzania, one of Africa’s most distinguished publishers, with wide knowledge of both African and international publishing. The other members of the Jury in 2009 were: Professor Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor of English at Princeton University; Professor Peter Katjavivi, Chairman of the National Planning Commission in the Government of Namibia, and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Namibia; and Mary Jay, Secretary to the Managing Committee (the Jury). The Award is sponsored by Kodansha Ltd, Japan.

Honourable Mention
(alphabetical by publisher):

Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township by Christopher Mlalazi
Bulawayo: ’amaBooks, 2008
Mlalazi’s collection of short stories is an important addition to the new writing from Zimbabwe concentrating on the social disintegration of the country. The stories stand out by being set in Bulawayo, drawing on the distinctive identity of a provincial city, its Ndebele culture, and its marginal relation to the Shona centre. The success of the stories lies in the experiences of ordinary people coping with violence, anger and angst, rather than any self-conscious sense of form.

Leila ou la femme de l’aube by Sonia Chamkhi
Tunis: Editions Elyzad, 2008
The story of two contradictory strong women characters is told against the backdrop of the Tunisian landscape of history and origins, religion and cultures. Composed of 14 letters, following in the legacy of Mariama Bâ, the engaging writing is unusual in style and form. The production is exceptional in all aspects and is outstandingly beautiful.

Love in the Time of Treason by Zubeida Jaffer
Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2008
The moving account of the  life of Ayesha Dawood, South African political activist, product of a traditional observant Muslim family who supported her in transgressing social and religious restrictions on women’s behaviour. Successfully melding her resistance activities during the apartheid years, with the story of the love and romance with her husband, the book is an important contribution to struggle auto/biography, and highlights an aspect of Indian South African experience. 

For further information about the Award, please contact:
Mary Jay, Secretary to the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, PO Box 128, Witney, Oxon OX8 5XU, UK. Tel: +44-(0)1993-775235 Fax: +44-(0)1993-709265 Email: maryljay@aol.com www.nomaaward.org

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