.Serpel
By JOWIT SALUSEKI –
THE Caine Prize Literary Award is often referred to as the ‘Booker’ equivalent for African writing. This year this prestigious award has been scooped by Zambia’s Namwali Serpell.
Namwali was announced as winner last weekend in London for her story entitled The Sack.
The award has helped previous winners significantly raise their literary profiles and has landed Namwali some US$15,000 in prize money.
Mamwali was born in Lusaka but moved with her family to the United States (US) in 1989. Currently she is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is the author of a book of literary criticism and her fiction has appeared in publications, including Callaloo, Tin House and The Best American Short Stories 2009.
Namwali was shortlisted for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Literature and is a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award recipient.
Namwali was one of the winners of the 2011 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, which is given annually to six women writers who demonstrate excellence and promise in the early stages of their careers.
She is also the author of the novel Furrow. Her first story, Muzungu, was selected by Alice Sebold for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories in 2009.
