Best book of the year to be launched

The Africa Prize, or best book of the year from Africa, is to be awarded for the first time at the 2005 Zimbabwe International Book Fair.

This award, to include a cash prize which has yet to set, will be made to a book published in the year preceding the Zimbabwe book fair at which the award will be presented. Entries will be sought from African authors who would have published in the year in question. Categories to be considered for nomination will range from creative writing, children’s books, and scholarship.

The award will seek representation from all geographic regions on the continent and perhaps initially, in the major languages of the continent – English, French and Portuguese, says the ZIBF.

A strong effort will be made to strike a gender balance so that the prize is not dominated by male writers.

While it would be ideal to include indigenous languages and the literature of the Maghreb, it will be difficult in the initial stages to find members of a jury who would competently and fairly determine the best book in that area, says the ZIBF. In future, the award could be opened to cover African languages or it could be held on a rotational basis.

The children’s literature and creative writing categories would be assessed on the relevance of their subject matter, popular appeal, artistic quality, the degree of public debate provoked, linguistic innovation, contribution to a genre, creative integrity, and their overall influence. Books in the non-fiction category would be assessed additionally in accordance with the degree to which they introduce and popularise knowledge not previously available to the general reader, or on the extent to which they interpret existing facts in a new and more inclusive way.

The award is to be presented at the official opening of each book fair. Nomination forms will be sent out to stakeholders in the publishing industry during 2004 so that the first award can be made in 2005.