The Royal Society of Literature has unveiled the authors shortlisted for the Encore Award 2024 in which award winning Nigerian author makes the shortlist with her book, “A Spell Of Good Things“.
The celebrated author of Stay With Me unveils a dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption. Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future. Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kunle, the volatile son of an ascendant politician. When a local politician takes an interest in Eniola and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola and Eniola’s lives become intertwined. In her breathtaking novel, Ayobami Adebayo shines her light on Nigeria, on the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the shared humanity that lives in between.
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent”. A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London’s Somerset House.
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (born 29 January 1988) is a Nigerian writer. She studied at Obafemi Awolowo University, earning BA and MA degrees in Literature in English. She went to study Creative Writing (MA Prose fiction) at the University of East Anglia, where she was awarded an International Bursary. She has also studied writing with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Margaret Atwood. Her 2017 debut novel, Stay With Me, won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and the Prix Les Afriques. She was awarded The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture in 2017. Stay with Me was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, as well as for the 9mobile Prize for Literature (formerly the Etisalat Prize for Literature), which the novel won in 2019. It was also longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Congratulations Ayọ̀bámi!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
