2 Nigerians make Women’s Prize for Fiction list

Nigeria’s Ayobami Adebayo and Yewande Omotoso are among the 16 finalists up for the N11.4 million prize which “celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women”. Adebayo made the list for her novel ‘Stay With Me’ and Omotoso for ‘The Woman Next Door’. Adebayo’s ‘Stay With Me’ is a story of the life of […]

Nigeria’s Ayobami Adebayo and Yewande Omotoso are among the 16 finalists up for the N11.4 million prize which “celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women”.

Adebayo made the list for her novel ‘Stay With Me’ and Omotoso for ‘The Woman Next Door’.

Adebayo’s ‘Stay With Me’ is a story of the life of a couple, Yejide and Akin, who struggle to have children. Tradition meets modernity in this novel set in Nigeria in the 80s and then again in 2008.

Omotoso’s ‘The Woman Next Door’ tells the story of Hortensia and Marion, sworn enemies who are next door neighbours in a Cape Town suburb. One is black, one white and both have recently been widowed and in their eighties.

The candidates for the Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced in celebration of International Women’s Day. Tessa Ross, chair of this year’s panel, said: “The judges had a large number of books of extraordinary quality to choose from this year, and so I can’t say that it was an easy process to come up with a list as short as 16.”

This year’s list includes six Britons, three Canadians, three Americans, one South Africans, one Irish author, and two Nigerians. It honours both new and well-established writers, focusing on genres ranging from social satire to romance and crime.

Among those previously shortlisted for the prize is US author Margaret Atwood, who has written more than 40 works of fiction, poetry and essays, including ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, the Booker-winning ‘The Blind Assassin’, the MaddAddam trilogy and her latest novel, ‘The Heart Goes Last’.

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women, the prize is limited to authors who write in English.

The jury comprises journalists, authors and publishers.