In 2020, we bring you the second Orange Book Prize, first launched in Africa in 2019.Books entering the 2020 competition can be submitted from now until the end of November. The event, held with the support of the Institut Français, is our way of helping new literary talent and bringing it to a wider audience. The cultural programme supplements the educational and healthcare programmes that our Foundation deploys in 18 countries throughout Africa.
Recognition of literary talent in Africa
The aim of the Orange Book Prize in Africa is to promote new literary talent in Africa and support local publishers. In 2020, the Prize will go to a work of fiction written in French by an African author and published by a publishing house based on the African continent.
First important date: 30 November
To qualify, the books must be published between 1 January 2018 and 30 October 2019. The publishing houses wishing to enter have until 30 November 2019 to send in a maximum of two works.
Six novels will be shortlisted by six reading committees based in Tunisia, Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. The list of finalists will be communicated in late February 2020. The finalists and their publishers will be invited to Paris in March for the Paris Book Fair.
The jury, chaired by novelist and university lecturer, Véronique Tadjo, is made up of writers, literary critics and renowned personalities from the literary world. The panel is tasked with appointing a winner from among the six finalists. The winner will be announced in early June 2020 at a ceremony held in a capital city in Africa. In addition to a cash prize of €10,000, the winner will also benefit from a marketing campaign to promote his or her work.
You can keep up to date on the Orange Book Prize in Africa on the website lecteurs.com
In 2019, Cameroonian writer Djaïli Amadou Amal won the Orange Book Prize in Africa for her book Munyal, les larmes de la patience, published by Proximité in 2017. In the novel, the author, who campaigns against social discrimination and the situation of women in the Sahel, deals with such issues as domestic violence in polygamous marriages and the struggle of the emancipation of women in the Sahel and in Africa. Djaïli Amadou Amal will join the jury this year.
The Orange Book Prize in Africa is on the website lecteurs.com, a literary social network that brings together more than 220,000 members.