We are proud to announce that The Rainmakers by Paul Kisakye is the winner of the inaugural edition of the Sarraounia Prize for Young Adult Fiction 2020. The mystery story of five teenagers and a long-lost uncle in the middle of holiday boredom set in a hi-tech farm in Uganda stood out from hundreds of manuscript entries in French and in English received from across the continent.
Members of the jury for the 2020 edition included the publisher Antoinette Fall Correa, recently departed academic, playwright and literary critic Chaibou Dan-Inna, international publishing director and literary agent Sarah Odedina and the children’s bookseller Binta Tini.
This year’s winner will receive a prize of 1,000 euros at an award ceremony on 24 October 2020 to be held in Niamey, Niger, and the published winning entry to be released and disseminated both in English and in French by Amalion from 31 October 2020.
Paul Kisakye is a Ugandan-born writer, editor and writing coach. He is the author of the Tech Explorers League, a series of sci-fi novels for children; and a non-fiction book Prodigal Love. He is an African Writers Trust Publishing Fellow and was shortlisted for the Writivism Short Story Prize in 2013 for his piece, “Emotional Roller Coaster”.
The Sarraounia Prize for Young Adult Fiction is founded by the Arts & Culture programme at Abdou Moumouni University, Niger and the publisher Amalion, Senegal to contribute to the availability of reading material for African young adults and to promote literature to help better understand the world of African youths. Every two years, the Sarraounia Prize will be awarded to the best unpublished fiction for young adults written in English, French or Hausa by African authors and illustrators based in Africa.
Partners
The Arts & Culture programme at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, Niger offers courses in arts and culture from Bachelor’s to Doctorate programmes that combine theoretical knowledge, technical learning and artistic practice. The programme welcomes artists in creative residencies, offers master class sessions and seminars. For more info: https://web.facebook.com/La-fili%C3%A8re-Arts-et-CultureUAM-2261231903951300/?ref=py_c
Amalion is an independent publisher with the mission to disseminate innovative knowledge on Africa to strengthen the understanding of Africa and its people. Amalion provides a platform for authors to express new, alternative and daring perspectives and views on people, places, events, and issues shaping our world. Amalion produces monographs and literary writings, primarily in English and French for scholars, students, and general readers with an interest in African Studies, the humanities, and the social sciences. For more info: http://www.amalion.net
Culture at Work Africa is a consortium of eight African, European and international partners joining forces with the European Union to create new opportunities and mobilise stakeholders to promote intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity in urban and peri-urban areas in Africa as drivers for social inclusion and sustainable human development. For more info http://www.cultureatwork.net
Contact
For more info about the prize, see www.sarraounia.com
For media enquiries about the author and The Rainmakers, release date, etc., contact [link to form on site] or http://www.amalion.net