Category Archives: Ethiopian literature

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Mengestu Dinaw and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor on Folio Prize long list

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

The Folio Prize is the first major English language book prize open to writers from around the world published in the UK.
The prize is shaped by The Folio Prize Academy, an international group of people, mainly writers and critics, immersed in the world of books and play a decisive role in selecting titles to be considered for the shortlist, and each year the judges will be drawn from its number. This academy includes some familiar names like Helon Habila, Teju Cole, Aminatta Forna, Petina Gappah, Noviolet Bulawayo and Helen Oyeyemi.
The longlist for the Folio Prize 2015 has just been announced by the academy and there are a couple of novels on it that readers of this blog will be familiar with; Mengestu Dinaw and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. They are in the running for their books All Our Names and Dust respectfully.
The two are in the running for the sixty five year old prize with the short list of eight titles being announced on 9 February 2015. This will be followed by the winner of The Folio Prize being announced on Monday 23 March at a ceremony at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in central London. That’s London, UK not London, Eastlands. Apart from champagne and acclaim they will also be presented with a cheque for £40,000.

Update: South African author Damon Galgut is also on the list for his novel Arctic Summer.

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Top Names in Washington Post’s top 50 fiction books for 2014

Helen Oyeyemi

I really should have flagged this Top Fiction Books by the Washington Post in November but I somehow missed out on it. I really just discovered the list when some pals forwarded to me a link of one Ayelet Waldman who was #WhiningWhileWhite that she had failed to included in the notable books of the New York Times. The list incidentally featured All our Names by Dinaw Mengistu. One of the links that the story had was the list of The Washington Post’s top 50 books of 2014 and guess what? Some of the names are familiar to you. Dinaw Mengistu, Helen Oyeyemi and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Here are the citations given in the Washington Post article;

ALL OUR NAMES

By Dinaw Mengestu (Knopf)

Mengestu, who left his native Ethiopia as a child and now teaches at Georgetown, tells the mournful, mysterious story of an African man who comes to the Midwest on a student visa. He captures beautifully the conflicted emotions of someone who has survived the loss of his family, his country and his identity. — R.C.

BOY, SNOW, BIRD

By Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead)

In this whimsical reimagining of “Snow White” moved to 1950s Massachusetts, Oyeyemi explores the alchemy of racism and the weird ways in which identity can be transmuted in an instant — from beauty to beast, or vice versa. — R.C.

DUST

By Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Knopf)

“Dust”opens in 2007 with a panicked chase through the streets of Nairobi and moves between the lamentation of a single family and the corruption of national politics swirling around one young man’s death, creating a vortex of grief that draws in generations of deceit and Kenya’s tumultuous modern history. — R.C.

Unfortunately none of them were able to make the top ten list at the end of the year. Now off to check the top books of the Boston Globe and LA Times…

 

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Dinaw Mengestu makes New York Times 100 notable books

Dinaw Mengestu

The New York Times has unveiled their 100 notable books of 2014 and there is novel by a name readers of this blog are familiar with; Dinaw Mengestu.

Mengestu entered our consciousness for the first time when he was a guest of our Storymoja Hay Festival in 2012 and we have been stalking him following his progress since. The Ethiopian born writer went on to win the McArthur Foundation “genius’ Grant in the same year. This year the recognitions continued as he was listed in that Africa39 list of writers as well being in the for the Kirkus Prize 2014.

The writer was given a new honour yesterday as his book All Our Names (Knopf) was listed amongst the 100 notable books of 2014. Here is the citation in full;

“ALL OUR NAMES. By Dinaw Mengestu. (Knopf, $25.95.) With great sadness and much hard truth, Mengestu’s novel looks at a relationship of shared dependencies between a Midwestern social worker and a bereft African immigrant.”

This is great as we all know how well respected the US publication is respected in world literature. Cool cool stuff.

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Dinaw Mengestu in the running for Kirkus Prize 2014

Dinaw Mengestu

Ethiopian born writer Dinaw Mengestu is in the running for this years Kirkus Prize as his book All Our Names was among the finalists for its first annual book prizes.

The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large.
Its not the first time our favourite Ethiopian writer is in the running for a prize as he was the winner of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 2012. Many Kenyans will remember him for his appearance at the Storymoja Festival in the same year (2012) when it still had the “Hay” moniker in its title.
We wish him all the best.

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Storymoja 2012 guest writer Dinaw Mengestu wins ‘Genius grant’

Dinaw Mengestu

Its been a good time for some in the writing business. Ng’ang’a Mbugua recently won the Wahome Mutahi Literature award for his excellent Different Colours read this weekend. He was doing it for the second time in a row. The prize is Kshs50,000. Even happier was Anthony Mugo who collected a cool Kshs1,000,000 in the Burt prize for his book Never Say Never which made the Wahome Mutahi prize pale in comparison.

Then yesterday Ethiopian born, US based Dinaw Mengestu, one of the guest writers at the Storymoja Hay festival this year, became a recipient of the 2012 $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.

I ran into Dinaw a few weeks ago at the Storymoja Hay Festival. The guy is brilliant and will answer questions thrown him intelligently leaving you begging for more. He clearly knows his business the author who has written ‘The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears’ and ‘How to Read the Air’.

Which makes sense when I heard that the man is on a very lucrative honour roll as one of this year’s $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant winners. He joins a bunch of other people in diverse fields to get this grant which works where the winner gets US$100,000 for five years.

The last winner for the award you may know was Nigeria author Chimamanda Adichie famous for her book Half of a yellow sun. And Purple Hibiscus. The lass won it in 2008 and I suppose that next year ends her annual US$100,000 gravy train. Adichie needs to come here again; she might just get her Genius award grant on again no?