Timi Sanni and Salama Wainana (Poetry), Chidera Nwume (Fiction), and Frank Njugi (Non-Fiction) have won the inaugural JAY Lit Awards, an initiative of the Journal of African Youth Literature (JAY Lit) that seeks to recognise excellence and honour the finest voices published in the journal in a calendar year.
The JAY Lit Prize for Poetry was won jointly by Timi Sanni and Salama Wainaina for their respective poems “State of Emergency” which was published in Issue 7 and “Three Deaths” which was published in Issue 8. The JAY Lit Prize for Fiction was won by Chidera Nwume for her short story “Welcome to Iya Mosun’s Midnight Club” which was published in Issue 8, while The JAY Lit Prize for Non-Fiction was won by Frank Njugi with his essay “The Palate”, also from Issue 8. The full winners list is as follows:
JAY Lit Prize for Poetry
“State of Emergency” by Timi Sanni (Issue 7) – Joint Winner
“Three Deaths” by Salama Wainaina (Issue 8) – Joint Winner
“Four Incantations for the Earth” by Arikewusola Abdul Awal (Issue 7) – Joint Runner-Up
“Oil on Canvas (2024)” by Aman Bibi Gray (Issue 7) – Joint Runner-Up
JAY Lit Prize for Fiction
“Welcome to Iya Mosun’s Midnight Club” by Chidera Nwume (Issue 8) – Winner
“Mother Theresa” by Ekemini Pius (Issue 7) – 1st Runner-Up
“RIP Revisited” by Jan Brümmer (Issue 6) – 2nd Runner-Up
JAY Lit Prize for Non-Fiction
“The Palate” by Frank Njugi (Issue 8) – Winner
“Ignorance is Brit” by MaryAnn Ifeanacho (Issue 7) – 1st Runner-Up
“Dancing to the Rhythm of a Funeral Song” by Great Opara (Issue 8) – 2nd Runner-Up
All winners and runners-up are automatic winners of the 2024 “JAY Lit Editor’s Choice Commendation”, as selected by the respective JAY Lit category editors (the tier 2 judges)—Gabriel Awuah Mainoo (poetry), Deborah Oluniran-Adeniyi (Fiction), and Iruoma Chukwuemeka (Non-Fiction).
The final winners were selected tier 1 judges S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema (Poetry), Makena Onjerika (Fiction), and Mubanga Kalimamukwento (Non-Fiction).
S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema is a multiple-award-winning writer, editor, cultural advocate, and development practitioner. Among other prizes across genres, he has won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize (2014 & 2022), the Mandela Day Short Story Prize 2016 and was a finalist for the Nigeria Prize for Literature (2022). He has also been nominated for prizes such as the SDGs Short Story Award 2021 by the Economic Commission for Africa (2021); the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature (2018), the Abubakar Gimba Prize for Short Stories 2022, Saraba/PEN Nigeria Poetry Prize (2012), and the Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Prose Fiction (2014).
Makena Onjerika was awarded the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing. She was shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Morland Writing Scholarship, the 2020 Bristol Prize, and the 2022 NOMMO Short Story Award. She was a Best of the Net nominee in 2020. Her work has appeared on Granta and in The Deadlands, The Fireside Magazine, Black Warrior Review, Wasafari, Johannesburg Review of Books, Adroit Journal, Waxwing among others.
Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian attorney and writer with an MFA from Hamline University, where she received the Writer of Color Merit Scholarship and the Deborah Keenan Poetry Scholarship. She is the winner of the Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction (2024); the Drue Heinz Literature Prize (2024), selected by Angie Cruz; the Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Contest (2022), selected by Carmen Giménez; the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award (2019) & Kalemba Short Story Prize (2019). Her first novel, The Mourning Bird, was listed among the top 15 debut books of 2019 by Brittle Paper.
The judges had the following to say about the winning pieces:
S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema on the poetry shortlist: “The four finalist poems are beautiful and poignant, striking in imagery, narrative, and thematic preoccupation. There is also a thread that runs through them effortlessly. A super pleasure to be on the panel and well done to everyone—you are all winners!”
Makena Onjerika on “Welcome to Iya Mosun’s Midnight Club”: “It’s clever in its use of the second person narrator to put the readers deeply in the character’s shoes.”
Mubanga Kalimamukwento on “The Palate”: “The Palate is cleverly rendered reflection on the meaning of home through the familiarity of food. And just as the food was multi-textured, so too was the narration. At once nostalgic as it was humorous, nonchalant and hopeful. I didn’t realise I didn’t want this story to end, until it did.”
The joint-winners of the poetry category will receive $25 each while the winners of the fiction and non-fiction categories will receive $50 respectively. Among the prizes for the runners-up are books from our partner presses Masobe Books, Narrative Landscape Press, and Jacaranda Books; a place in Ubwali Masterclasses for the non-fiction 1st runner-up; and automatic qualification for The SEVHAGE-JAY Lit Hyginus Ekwuazi Poetry Prize 2024 for the poetry runners-up.
All winners will also receive books from our partner presses while the fiction winner and 1st runner-up will get a manuscript review from Inspivia Books. In addition, all poetry winners and runners-up will be published by SEVHAGE in the SEVHAGE DEEP COLLECTION 2024.
In the words of JAY Lit editor and JAY Lit Awards manager, Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim: “We’re very proud to have been able to set the ball in motion for The JAY Lit Awards. As the name implies, it is an award, not a competition. It is something to recognise the best works published in our journal every year, and to encourage more people to write and believe in the power of their words. Congratulations to all winners and runners-up. We hope they enjoy the moment and wish them all the best for the future.”
The Journal is immensely grateful to all our tier 2 and 3 judges, and especially to our tier 1 judges, S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema, Makena Onjerika, and Mubanga Kalimamukwento. The Journal also gives huge thanks to the proud supporters of this first edition of the awards, namely Ubwali Literary Magazine, Masobe Books, Narrative Landscape Press, Inspivia Books, Jacaranda Books, and SEVHAGE Publishers.
Huge congratulations to Timi, Salama, Chidera, Frank, and all our runners-up!
