Zimbabwean author, Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Island Prize for his book, Freelance. Alongside the winner, the runners-up include Ruby Excel with Lyrics to the Colour Red and Mali Kambandu with When the Shadows Call.
Kundizeza’s Freelance is a story about the human cost of corruption and unchecked power, and the struggle for justice in a complex political landscape. Set in 2019 in Zimbabwe, it follows Omar Warsame Mohammed, a Somali-American freelance investigative reporter from Minnesota. As a child, Omar fled the civil war in Somalia and lived as a refugee in Zimbabwe alongside his friend Edgar Antonio. Now an established journalist, Omar receives a cryptic Facebook message from Edgar, who works as a truck driver for Rossiya Fert, a large Russian fertiliser company operating in Zimbabwe. Before Omar can meet with Edgar in Zimbabwe, he receives devastating news – Edgar has been found dead in an apparent suicide.
The Island Prize was established to honour South African author Karen Jennings and her Booker-longlisted novel An Island. This prize is managed by Jennings in collaboration with her publishers, Holland House Books (UK) and Karavan Press (South Africa). Winners receive cash prizes of £500 for first place, £300 for second, and £200 for third. Additionally, the top three manuscripts will be considered for publication, and their authors will be introduced to a literary agent.
Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza lives in Harare, Zimbabwe with his wife and daughter. A finalist in the 2018 Africa Book Club Short Story Competition, his short story ‘A Way Out’ was published in The Wrong Patient and Other Stories from Africa anthology, and ‘The Whistleblower’ published in Transition Magazine Issue 131.
Congratulations Simbarashe!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
