Two Nigerian female writers have been nominated for the award of the alternative Nobel Prize for Literature. They are Chimamanda Adichie and Nnedi Okorafor. The latter, who is the lesser known to the Nigerian public, is a celebrated Nigerian-American writer of fantasy and science fiction for adults and children.
While Adichie is nominated for her work, Americanah, Okoroafor made the prestigious list with her novel, Akata Witch. Acclaimed Kenyan author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, got nominated for A Grain of Wheat.
The Swedish Academy which has been awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901 cancelled the 2018 Award sequel to a sexual scandal that rocked the Academy. The unsavoury development made Alexandra Pascalidou, a Swedish journalist, to take it upon herself to create an alternative, named: The New Academy. The new academy, like the Swedish Academy is also based in Sweden; and it has offered a new vote-based alternative to the prestigious award.
In an interview with the New York Times, Alexandra Pascalidou said: “I just thought, ‘Why do the authors have to pay the price for this mess?’” She then teamed up with over 100 prominent Swedish cultural figures, including actors, novelists and a rapper, and started a new prize for literature that has the three aforementioned African writers on their longlist.
The new prize is open for the public to vote from a list of 47 nominees selected by Swedish librarians. The nominees for this year’s prize include literary giants like Marilynne Robinson, Haruki Murakami, JK Rowling, Amos Oz, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Pynchon, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, singer Patti Smith and the British fantasy writer, Neil Gaiman.
According to the organisers, three finalists will emerge through voting while librarians will choose a fourth. Unlike the Nobel Prize which has produced only 14 female winners out of 114 laureates, the Alternative Nobel’s shortlist will be restricted by gender-wo women, two men. The winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature will receive one million kronor (around $112,000) and, like the Nobel Laureate, a banquet will also be held in his or her honour.
Voting is ongoing and will lapse on August 14.
Born in 1974, she has won a number of awards, including Hugo Award for best novella and Nebula Award for best Novella. She studied at the Michigan State University, United States. Her story, Amphibious Green won her the Houston-Wright Literary award in 2001. She published Kabu Kabu, a collection of short stories two years later.
Adichie is the author of the popular Half of a Yellow Sun, a moving fictional work on the Nigerian civil war, which she narrated so lucidly yet never witnessed it. Born in 1977, she won the Houston-Wright Award for her work, The Purple Hibiscus, in 2004. Yet, the author and feminist continues to expand her frontiers each passing day. She has many other awards in her kitty and was, not long ago, conferred with an honorary degree at Duke.
On her part, Okorafor’s multiple collaborations with Marvel are set to make her a household name. Asides winning awards, works of both Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie featured on former U.S President Obama’s 2018 summer reading list.