The jury for the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa 2024 has announced the longlist for the inaugural contest.
The three-person jury consists of Dr. Wale Okediran, Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), as chairman, Edwige-Renée Dro, a writer, literary translator and literary activist from Côte d’Ivoire, and Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (also known as Ashraf Dali), an Egyptian poet, novelist and journalist.
In a statement, the chief judge for the $20,000 annual contest, Dr. Okediran, congratulated the publishers whose outstanding books have made the list.
He said each title “highlights the creativity and talent that define African trade publishing.”
Okediran gave the longlist of what he called “the standout publishers, editors, authors, and books shaping the future of our literature.”
A Canex2024 creative writing workshop with around 20 young authors from all over Africa and the diaspora is currently taking place in Aburi, Ghana, with four facilitators that include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the US-based Nigerian novelist and Creative Director of the James and Grace Adichie Foundation; Hawa Jande Golakai, a Liberian writer and clinical scientist, Zukiswa Wanner, a South African journalist, novelist and editor, and Richard Ali A. Mutu Kahambo, the President of the Congo Kinshasa Writers Association.
Explaining the way the judging task went, Okediran described it as a “rigorous assignment”, adding, “For about two months, myself and two co-judges scored 57 books submitted by 29 African publishers.
“A longlist of 13 publishers will soon be announced, to be followed by a shortlist of five publishers in September.”
The winning publisher will be announced during the award ceremony at the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend (CANEX WKND) 2024 to be held in Algiers, Algeria, from 16-19 October, 2024.
Meanwhile, the longlist of 13 books is as follows:
1. Female Fear Factory: Unravelling Patriarchy’s Cultures of Violence, by Ms. Pumla Dineo Gqola; publisher: Cassava Republic Press.
2. Avenues By Train, by Mr. Farai Mudzingwa; published by Cassava Republic Press.
3. The Lion’s Historian: African’s Animal Past, by Ms Sandra Swart; published by Jacana Media (PTY) Ltd.
4. Paperless, by Mr Buntu Siwisa; published by Jacana Media (PTY) Ltd.
5. Sanya, by Mrs. Oyin Olugbile; published by Masobe Books
6. When We Were Fireflies, by Mr. Abubakar Ibrahim; published by Masobe Books
7. The Presidents… From Mandela to Ramaphosa, Leadership in the Age of Crisis, by Richard Calland and Mabel Sithole; published by Penguin Random House SA
8. Reine Or, by Miss Fatou Sy; published by La Case des Lucioles
9. Widows Wear Lipstick: Navigating Grief and Finding Meaning After Loss, by Mrs. Martha Kyoshaba Twinamasiko; published by Leap Book Publishers, Ltd.
10. The Beautiful Side of the Moon, by Mrs. Leye Adenle; published by Ouida Books
11. Peaches and Smeets, by Ms Ashti Juggath; published by Modjaji Books (PTY) Ltd.
12. Half Hour Hara, by Miss Ugo Anidi; published by Kachifo Limited
13. African Odyssey of a Lebanese Emigrant…. An Autobiography of Sorts, by Dr. Habib Jaafar; published by Bookcraft Limited.
New Citizen reports that the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa is an initiative of the CANEX Book Factory, in turn a project of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), instituted as part of its commitment to supporting Africa’s creative and cultural industries.
Introduced in partnership with Narrative Landscape Press and The James and Grace Adichie Foundation, it plans a year-long programme of interventions to spotlight and elevate the African book value chain.
The CANEX Book Factory aims to increase capacity in the African literary sector with a programme of interventions that includes the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa, a pan-African creative writing workshop, and a bi-monthly resource email newsletter that curates legal, accounting and creative writing resources for writers, editors, agents, publishers and booksellers for African writers and book industry players.
Afreximbank is a pan-African supranational multilateral financial institution created in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank. It is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, as a financial provider to African governments and private businesses in support of African and Caribbean trade.
