Elnathan, Cassava Republic lose out on small press prize

Nigerian author of ‘Born on a Tuesday’, Elnathan John, and publishers Cassava Republic have lost out on the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses worth N1.1m (£3,000). The prize was won by Fitzcarraldo, a London-based independent press established in 2014 for publishing John Keene’s ‘Counternarratives’, an experimental collection of 13 stories and novellas. The […]

Nigerian author of ‘Born on a Tuesday’, Elnathan John, and publishers Cassava Republic have lost out on the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses worth N1.1m (£3,000).

The prize was won by Fitzcarraldo, a London-based independent press established in 2014 for publishing John Keene’s ‘Counternarratives’, an experimental collection of 13 stories and novellas.

The selection was the unanimous choice of six judges, who deemed the American writer’s (Keene) work a “once in a generation achievement for short-form fiction” and praised its “subject matter, formal inventiveness, multitude of voices, and seriousness of purpose”.

Other shortlisted presses and books, Tramp Press for Mike McCormack’s novel ‘Solar Bones’, And Other Stories for Anakana Schofield’s novel ‘Martin John’, and ‘Galley Beggar’ for Paul Stanbridge’s Forbidden Line received N383, 440 (£1,000).

In January, John’s novel, ‘Born on a Tuesday’ published by Cassava Republic, a Nigerian publishing company with a branch in the United Kingdom (UK), made it into the final shortlist of four (judged by booksellers.

The Republic of Consciousness prize was set up by award-winning novelist Neil Griffiths in 2016 (with a personal donation of £2,000) to recognise the work of small publishers who take financial risks in publishing challenging and experimental fiction. The prize did not charge publishers an entry fee, in order to include presses that would not usually step forward. Open to imprints based in the UK, Commonwealth and Ireland, short-form and long-form fiction is eligible for the award, which splits the prize money between the winning authors and their publishers.

In 2016 John was in the final shortlist of three in the NLNG-sponsored Nigerian Prize for Literature.