Nominees Announced for Kenya’s Burt Award for African Literature 2012
Alert! An important event that passed most of us by last week – mostly, for being unscheduled and overdue – was the announcement of the nominees for the Kenyan Burt Award for African Literature 2012.
The award is sponsored by Canadian philanthropist, William Burt, and jointly administered by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) in collaboration with Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE).
The announcement was made last week by NBDCK Chairman, Prof Chris Wanjala, who remarked on the award’s importance in not simply encouraging reading but encouraging “reading for pleasure”. Ruth Odondo, NBDCK Chief Executive, added to this, saying that the award aims “to increase the number of locally produced story books for our young people” as well as to “improve spoken and written English in our [Kenyan] schools”.
The nominees, chosen from a vast number of manuscripts submitted in 2011, are Edward Mwangi for The Delegates, Anthony Mugo for Never Say Die, and Ngumi Kibera for The Devil’s Hill. The order in which these nominees are ranked will be revealed in September during Kenya’s annual Book Week.
According to Khainga O’Okwemba, writing in the Kenyan Star, the Burt Award prize money is higher than that of any awarded in Kenya, with first prize valued at 12 000 Canadian dollars. All three nominees will also have their manuscripts published in Kenya and widely distributed among schools as part of the NBDCK’s “young readers programme”:
Readers of this column will recall us saying the annual Burt Award for African Literature was going to be a major focus of Kenya’s literary calendar in 2012. The award is sponsored and named after a Canadian philanthropist William Burt, and administered through the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education. In Kenya it’s administered by the National Book Development Council of Kenya, thanks to the exemplary work of CEO Ruth Odondi, who transformed a rather sleeping flagship into a core contributor to the renaissance of contemporary Kenyan literature.
Kenya is one of several African countries where this award is sponsored. Every country organises the competition and awards its nationals. However, the main objective is to support and motivate development of supplementary reading materials for primary and secondary schools; recognize excellence in literature for youth; strengthen English language skills and foster enthusiasm and love for reading; stimulate and support the African publishing industry.
- Press release (pdf download)
Watch the short clip of the announcement:
- Not playing? Watch on YouTube
In the same article, O’Okwemba remarks on the absence of women among this year’s nominees and encourages Kenya’s women writers to enter the 2013 award, for which submissions are now open:
Image courtesy the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education
Apr
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