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Positive response for Peer Gynt Awards

The organisers of the K8 million (about $22 222) Peer Gynt Literary Awards, Malawi Writers Union (Mawu), say there is a positive response from the participants as six manuscripts have already been submitted.

Mawu president Sambalikagwa Mvona on Thursday described the progress on the entries as “encouraging”.

He said prior to the awards in August, there will be reading festivals across the cities where judges, Professor Jack Mapanje, UK-based Ellen Banda-Aaku and James Ng’ombe, will recite their poetry and talk about their writing careers.

Banda-Aaku is winner of 2011 Penguin Book Prize. Ng’ombe is a renowned writer while Mapanje is the celebrated writer and poet.

Mvona said the judges will also visit one or two secondary schools to inspire students in creative writing.

“It’s quite encouraging to note that people have already submitted the entries within a space of two months because novel manuscripts take six months or one year to write,” said Mvona.

He said more people are calling him to learn more about the competition. Mvona said they are expecting about 30 or 40 entries for the competition.

He also said the extension of the deadline from March 31 to May 3 should give the writers enough time to finalise their works.

Mapanje, now a lecturer of creative writing at the University of Newcastle in UK, was arrested and detained without charge between 1987 and 1991 for his poetry collection Of Chameleon and Gods. He has also authored several other works including And Crocodiles Are Hungry at Night which has been adapted into a play by Nanzikambe Arts group.

Apart from the judges, Mvona said they have also chosen the readers, Kingsley Jika, Hophmally Aipira and Maureen Mlenga, who will shortlist the manuscripts for the judges to decide the best.

He assured the participants that there will be no fraud as the nominated manuscripts, which he said should be in hardcopy, will be sent to the judges through DHL.

With funding from the Norwegian Embassy, the competition will award top three winners with a printing and publishing deal and the best manuscript writer will go home with K500 000 (about $1 389). 

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