Sarah Ozo-Irabor appointed Director of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing
Photo Credit: Personal Credit
London, 20 September 2021 – Sarah Ozo-Irabor has been appointed as the Director of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.
Sarah Ozo-Irabor is a literary practitioner experienced in spearheading numerous projects centring the engagement with, and promotion of, African literature. She has been instrumental in opening up transnational conversations on works by writers of African descent, not least through founding Books & Rhymes, a literary podcast that reimagines the transformative power of books and the way music and literature dialogue with each other. She is also the founder of Lit Avengers, an intertextual monthly literary salon. In 2020, she was named Brittle Paper’s Social Media Influencer of the Year for her use of social media as a way of redefining literature.
Sarah has worked with media outlets and organisations such as BBC, City University of London, Detroit Public Library, and Cassava Republic Press – and she has participated in the Edinburgh Literary Festival and Africa Writes Festival, amongst others, to produce live events or as a literature specialist.
Commenting on her new position, she said: “I’ve always avidly followed the AKO Caine Prize and the award ceremony is a highlight in my calendar, and it was an amazing experience to work with the Prize and manage events in the summer. Now I am excited to carry out the Prize’s work from this new position and increase visibility for writers of African descent, together with the Chair, the Trustees and Council members. It is a huge honour to be at the front of this journey, and I cannot wait to get started.”
The Chair of the AKO Caine Prize, Ellah P. Wakatama OBE, said: “My fellow Trustees and I are delighted that Sarah is joining us at the AKO Caine Prize. Her work around a busy award season on the 2021 Prize was a clear testament to her passion for literature, her commitment and professionalism, and I am looking forward to seeing what else Sarah will bring to the Prize in her new role as its Director.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation, which makes grants towards charities and charitable projects that improve education, promote the arts, or mitigate climate problems.
The Foundation aims to help start up, or be the catalyst for, charitable projects which otherwise could not have been realised. The Foundation takes pride in having a very lean administrative structure so that it can make fast decisions, proving an invaluable ally for the Prize.
The 22 countries represented in the 2021 submissions are: Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Congo; Cote d'Ivoire; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Mauritius; Morocco; Namibia; Nigeria; Senegal; South Africa; Sudan; Tanzania; Tunisia; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe.
The Prize is awarded for a short story by an African writer published in English (indicative length 3,000 to 10,000 words). An African writer is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality. Works translated into English from other languages are not excluded, provided they have been published in translation, and should such a work win, a proportion of the prize would be awarded to the translator.
Ellah P. Wakatama OBE is the Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, and Sarah Ozo-Irabor is the Director.
Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011), Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018); Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019), Nigerian-British Irenosen Okojie (2020) and Ethiopian Meron Hadero (2021).
The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at the AKO Caine Prize workshop, and has been published every year by: Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda). Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon.
The AKO Caine Prize is principally supported by The AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.
For more information
Lucy Colomb
lucy@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7714