A few weeks ago I talked about this amazing new opportunity for African creatives from the Oppenheimer fund supported by Financial Times. Oppenheimer for those a conglomerate that made their millions in the diamond times while the Financial Times are a leading media voice from Europe.
The Emerging Voices awards are aimed at various creative disciplines with writers from Africa, artists from Latin America and film makers from Asia. The award worth US$40,000 to the winner announced the longlist for those who would be in the running to win the big prize in November this year. It was a decent cross section of the writers from around the continent.
The shortlist of those who are now in the driving seat for the goodies were recently announced and they are;
- Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya) for Dust published by Granta books
- Scholastique Mukasonga for Our Lady of the Nile published by Archipelago Books
- Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) for The Fishermen published by Pushkin Press
Yvonne isn’t a new name for the reader of this blog with her book Dust wowing everyone including this blogger. Her most recent accolade is a longlist for the Folio Prize making it through to the shortlist only for the prize to go to another worthy writer.
Chigozie Obioma recently appeared on the radar with his appearance on the Man Booker Prize long list. Lastly is Scholastique Mukasonga who is a Rwandan living in France.
We shall keep you posted on how this one ends up.
6 replies on “FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices shortlists announced”
[…] What a year to be Chigozie Obioma. His debut novel The Fishermen has been causing serious waves in the literary award scene in recent weeks with a longlist on the Man Booker Prize at the end of July. This was followed a few days later with him making the shortlist of the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices. […]
[…] a global roving ambassador of Kisumu county as well as being currently in the running for the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices […]
[…] Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is arguably the most important writer to come out of Kenya in this generation. She emerged in 2003 when her short story Weight of Whispers won the Caine Prize for African Writing. The novelist would follow on this win with a very well-received debut novel focusing on the Northern part of Kenya called Dust. It would win the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2015 and make the shortlists for both the Folio Prize 2015 and FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices. […]
[…] Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor emerged in 2003 when her short story Weight of Whispers won the Caine Prize for African Writing. She took on the title “novelist” with her 2013 debut novel Dust which focuses on the Northern part of Kenya and Nairobi. It won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2015 and made the shortlists for both the Folio Prize 2015 and FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices. […]
[…] Read more about the prize and check out the list of other finalists in fiction here. […]
[…] James for A Brief History of Seven Killings. Rwandan writer Scholastique Mukasonga who made the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices shortlist this year is on the list for Our Lady of the Nile while Nigerian-born Helen Oyeyemi is there for […]