Namwali Serpell has been awarded one of the world’s richest literary prizes.
She has become the fiction recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize 2020 which comes with $165,000. Namwali released her debut novel, The Old Drift in 2019.
She is one of eight recipients of the annual prize.
About winning the prize, Namwali stated, “I’m absolutely thrilled to receive this award and honored to join the company of these esteemed writers. The Windham-Campbell Prize has proven unique in celebrating writing in Africa based solely on it’s literary achievement; it’s deeply gratifying to be taken seriously as an artist.”
Namwali is a Zambian writer who lives and teaches in the United States.
Her short story “The Sack” (2015) won the Caine Prize in African Fiction, and her first novel, The Old Drift, was published to global acclaim.
Praised as “dazzling” by Salman Rushdie, short-listed for two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, The Old Drift was also named one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times, one of the 100 Must-Read Books of the Year by Time, and a book of the year by The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, and National Public Radio.
The Old Drift tells the story of three families—with people of African, European, and Indian descent—living in Zambia over the course of two hundred years. Part historical adventure, part psychological realism, part futuristic thriller, and part magical realism, the novel is an audacious, lush, sprawling, and altogether brilliant celebration of the artifice of fiction.
An associate professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Serpell is also the author of a book of literary criticism, Seven Modes of Uncertainty (2014), as well as the forthcoming essay collection Stranger Faces (2020).
Well Done Namwali!!! You have once again shown us what hardwork can translate into. Let more Zambian women learn that hardwork pays off!!!
She is beautiful.
I doubt if she feels Zambian.
CONGRATS DEAR!!!!!!!!!!
Great job Namwali, soar like that eagle!
I hope the Ministry of Education in Zambia puts it on the Literature in English books. I hv a copy at home, still unread but my daughter has read it.
Nostradamus: Of course she’s Zambian and feels Zambian, looks Zambian, daughter of UNZA ex-vice chancellor Prof Serpell. The subject is her book, not her looks or whatever u’re imagining.
Excellent product of the positive zambian governance system.
Congratulations! @Nostra what a strange comment. Why can’t she be beautiful and feel Zambian? Not everyone suffers from “Mushota complex”.
LOL, what’s your government got to do with this?
Congratulations to the author.
Congratulations indeed. I read it last month and it is brilliant, especially the fiction part, which would intrigue the young. Nemwine, we can add that she is also the daughter of the late Dr Hildah Namposya Nampanya Serpell to whom the book is dedicated.
Very nice news and girl.With all this gloomy stupidity affecting citizens this is so good news
Well done Namwali! Keep on soaring girl!Here’s an idea, perhaps setting up a critical writing competition for young Zambian/African writers, please. I mean, I remember getting into uni and not knowing how to construct an argument, let alone a thesis! Ala mayo afwa bamunonko!
@nostradumbass buti zoona muli chikopo obviously she feels Zambian, why Is she using a Zambian name, Namwali?
@nostradumbas.s buti zoona muli chikopo obviously she feels Zambian, why Is she using a Zambian name, Namwali if she doesn’t feel Zambian?