The 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature award ceremony took place on Saturday March 19, 2016 at Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos.
This year’s selected finalists are Penny Busetto, Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Rehanna Russouw.
Here’s what you need to know about the 3 finalists:
Penny Busetto – The Story of Anna P, as told by Herself
Penny Busetto is a South African born writer who studied, lived and worked in Italy for about twenty years before returning to settle in Cape Town in 1996. She is the author of a novel, The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself, which won the European Union Literary Award in 2013 and the University of Johannesburg prize for English in 2015. Associated with the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town where she is currently working on an interdisciplinary doctorate, she also has a deep interest in Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry and History.
Rehana Rossouw – What Will People Say?
Rehana Rossouw was born and rooted in Cape Town, but is currently in self-imposed exile in Johannesburg. She has been a journalist for three decades and has also taught journalism and creative writing. She has a Master’s in Creative Writing from Wits University.
Fiston Mwanza Mujila – Tram 83
Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, where studied Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. He now lives in Graz, Austria and is pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages. His writing has been awarded with numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal at the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut as well as the Best Text for Theater (State Theater, Mainz) in 2010. His poems, prose works, and plays are reactions to the political turbulence that has come in the wake of the independence of the Congo and its effect on day-to-day life.
The winner of this year’s Etisalat Prize for Literature, Fiston Mwanza Mujila received £15,000, and a high-end device. Also, Etisalat will sponsor a book tour to three African cities. The winning writer will also embark on the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia mentored by Professor Giles Foden (author of The Last King of Scotland), which will include significant opportunities to meet other writers, publishers and most importantly work on their second book.
