Ghanaian writer Nii Parkes wins the 2014 African Writer´s Residency Award
Nii Parkes has been selected as the 2014 winner of
the Sylt Foundation African Writer´s Residency Award. Parkes, who lives in
Ghana and England is the recipient of the Residency Award, which he will take
up at the Sylt Foundation´s headquarters within the next months.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor,
socio-cultural commentator and performance poet. He holds an MA in Creative
Writing from Birkbeck (University of London) and is a 2007 recipient of Ghana's
national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy. Nii's début novel 'Tail
of the Blue Bird' was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Prize and his work
has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, German and Arabic.
His latest books of poetry are the Michael Marks Award-shortlisted pamphlet,
ballast: a remix (2009) and The Makings of You (Peepal Tree Press).
Winning
this award Nii Parkes commented: „ The fact that the award of the Sylt Residency considers
work in progress as one of its criteria makes this win doubly sweet - it
validates the work I am doing and also gives me valuable immersion time to work
towards its completion. I'm dreading the cold on Sylt island, but I'm very
happy.“
The winner was selected in a two-tier process by the
four independent judges, this year judges were Imraan Coovadia (writer and
literary scholar, Cape Town), Pamela Nichols (literary scholar, Johannesburg),
Veronique Tadjo (poet, writer and literary scholar, Johannesburg) and Indra
Wussow (literary scholar and translator, Johannesburg/Sylt) out of an
impressive list of strong contenders. The jury commented “Nii Parkes is such an
original writer who easily moves about different literary genres that he will
surely offer us something new and exciting with this new project he will be
working on in his residency“.
This new residency opportunity is awarded annually
to writers of contemporary African literature. The winner of the 1st African
Writer´s Award 2013 was Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe. The African Writer´s
Residency Award provides a two month stay in a subsidized apartment to writers
of contemporary African literature, who engage with current thems and concerns
related to Africa and the African diaspora. The award is open to published
writers of poetry, prose, plays and novels.
The Foundation is located on the island of Sylt off
the coast of Hamburg in Germany. Its residency programme has been running for
several years and offers opportunities to South African as well as
international visual artists, writers, composers and film makers. The programme
is managed under the directorship of literary scholar and curator Indra Wussow.
For additional information:
The Sylt Foundation
