Ethiopian-American Novelist Dinaw Mengestu nominated for 2015 Folio prize
Three African writers are among the nominees for the 2015 Folio Prize: Damon Galgut, Kenyan Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Ethiopian-American Dinaw Mengestu.
The £40,000 prize was initiated last year, unofficially as a more literary alternative to the Man Booker Prize.
Galgut has been nominated for Arctic Summer, Adhiambo Owuor for Dust and Mengestu for All Our Names.
In contrast, the longlist for the 2014 Booker Prize, although much shorter at 13 books, featured a complete absence of African authors.
The Folio Prize longlist comprises 80 books, and is open to any work of fiction published in the UK. The books are selected by the Folio Prize Academy’s 235 members, which include JM Coetzee, Teju Cole, NoViolet Bulawayo and Helon Habila. Bulawayo and Galgut are also Academy members, but are recused from this year’s prize.
Source: Books Live