Bulawayo is longlisted for her second novel, Glory, while Okparanta is longlisted for her Harry Sylvester Bird.
By Editor
Zimbabwean and Nigerian novelists, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Chinelo Okparanta, have been longlisted for the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize.
This year’s prize is judged by Rumaan Alam, Chris Bryan, Omar El Akkad, Teresa Goddu, and Dawnie Walton.
Others on the longlist include Angie Cruz (How Not To Drown in a Glass of Water), Fatimah Asghar (When We Were Sisters), Jonathan Escoffery (If I Survive You), Mohsin Hamid (The Last White Man), Oscar Hokeah (Calling for a Blanket Dance), Ladee Hubbard (The Last Suspicious Holdout), Jamil Jan Kochai (The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories), Talia Laskhmi Kolluri (What We Fed to the Manticore), Manuel Muñoz (The Consequences), Tara M. Stringfellow (Memphis), Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could be Different), and Alejandro Varela (The Town of Babylon).
The $35,000-worth prize considers novels and short story collections from writers of all nationalities, writing on important social issues. According to the organisers, the award “illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.”
(Read also: 14 African Women Shine In 2022 BBC 100 Women List)
Bulawayo is longlisted for her second novel, Glory, a work of fable that takes on the fall of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Okparanta is longlisted for her Harry Sylvester Bird, her second novel covering the story of a white man’s racial re-education on blackness.
The prize shortlist is scheduled to be announced on March 6th, and the winner revealed April 19th, 2023.