Author Of ‘Stay With Me’ Ayobami Adebayo Wins 9mobile Prize For Literature
- Anu
- August 9, 2019
- Cover, News
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Writer and author of ‘ Stay With Me‘, Ayobami Adebayo has been announced 2019 winner of 9mobile’s Prize for Literature.
The 9mobile Prize celebrates debut African writers of published fiction, and the winner takes home £15,000 (about N6million naira). The prize also includes an engraved Montblanc Meisterstück pen and an Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia, under the mentorship of Professor Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland.
Adébáyọ̀ was shortlisted alongside Lesley Nneka Arimah, for What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, and Marcus Low, for Asylum.
‘It’s unexpected,’ Adébáyọ̀ said of her win. ‘I’m surprised not just in terms of winning the prize itself because it was a very strong shortlist. The other books were very amazing. Lesley Arimah’s collection of short stories, I think, is one of the best books that was published that year. Marcus Low’s Asylum is also really brilliant. So, it’s surprising to win the prize. I’m shocked.’
Adébáyọ̀’s win was announced by her publisher in Nigeria, Ouida Books:
Just in, Ouida author @ayobamiadebayo has just been announced the winner of the 2019 9mobile Prize for Literature ? ? pic.twitter.com/rU4b7RNhTP
— Ouida Books (@OuidaBooks) August 8, 2019
