As, for example, Nehru Odeh reports in PM News, the Nigeria Prize for Literature has gone to Chika Unigwe's novel -- published in the UK as On Black Sisters' Street and in the US apostrophe-less as On Black Sisters Street.
(Seriously, publishers ?)
A couple of noteworthy points about this book -- first and foremost that it was originally published in Dutch, way back in 2007, as Fata Morgana (see, for example, the Dutch Foundation for Literature information page).
Also kind of neat: even though published in the US by Random House, paperback rights went to Ohio University Press -- see their publicity page -- and this prize should now ensure that this is a reliably steady seller. (It's somewhat disappointing, however, that Random House didn't think it worth hanging onto; in the UK it's out from Vintage (see their publicity page).) Get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Interesting also that the chairman of the panel of judges Ayo Banjo saw fit to point out that:
A couple of noteworthy points about this book -- first and foremost that it was originally published in Dutch, way back in 2007, as Fata Morgana (see, for example, the Dutch Foundation for Literature information page).
Also kind of neat: even though published in the US by Random House, paperback rights went to Ohio University Press -- see their publicity page -- and this prize should now ensure that this is a reliably steady seller. (It's somewhat disappointing, however, that Random House didn't think it worth hanging onto; in the UK it's out from Vintage (see their publicity page).) Get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Interesting also that the chairman of the panel of judges Ayo Banjo saw fit to point out that:
Some of the entries would have stood a better chance of winning this prize but were marred by problems attendant upon poor publishing.