Zambian author Mubanga Kalimamukwento has won the 2025 CLMP Firecracker Award for Fiction for her collection Obligations to the Wounded, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Awarded annually by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), the Firecracker Awards spotlight publishers and authors working outside the mainstream to bring urgent, underrepresented stories to readers. In addition to a $2,000 cash prize—split between the author and publisher—winners receive national promotion, including a campaign in partnership with the American Booksellers Association.
In their citation, the 2025 fiction judges—Luis Alberto Correa (White Whale Bookstore), Juliana Lamy (You Were Watching from the Sand), and Alejandro Varela (The Town of Babylon) praised Obligations to the Wounded saying:
“Seldom does fiction so expertly capture the complications of queerness, family, dislocation, and culture. Obligations to the Wounded is a triumphant collection of unforgettable tales whose characters are as varied in identity as they are in experienced circumstances. With wit and cunning, the protagonists navigate the ever-present systems of oppression that encircle them and their relationships. Mubanga Kalimamukwento has written a stunning work of compassionate art worthy of our attention and emotions.”
Kalimamukwento is not new to acclaim. She is the author of the acclaimed novel The Mourning Bird (Jacana, 2019), and has continued to expand her range with works like unmarked graves (Tusculum University Press, 2022) and the poetry collection Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies (Wayfarer Books, 2025). Her second novel, The Shipikisha Club, is forthcoming from Dzanc Books in 2026.
Her stories and essays have appeared in literary journals such as addaa, Kweli, Overland, Contemporary Verse 2, and Isele Magazine, as well as in visual media platforms like Netflix.
Beyond her writing, Kalimamukwento is a committed literary organizer. She is the founder of Ubwali Literary Magazine, co-founder of the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop, and a mentor with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.
Congratulations, Mubanga Kalimamukwento!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
