: ondjaki gana premio grinzane

Ondjaki en Oaxaca, 2008.

Nuestro gran carnal Ondjaki (Buenos días, camaradas, Almadía, 2008) acaba de rifarse ganando el prestigioso Premio Grinzane, que en su tiempo han merecido J.M. Coetzee o Nadine Gordimer, nada más. Felicidades y un abrazo hasta Brasil a nuestro refuerzo angoleño con doble nacionalidad oaxaqueña.

‘Grinzane for Africa’ award to take place in Ethiopia

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Addis Ababa, October 22 (WIC) – The first edition of the award "Grinzane for Africa", African version of a prestigious Italian literary prize, will take place here tomorrow, according to missionary international service news agency.

Two great figures of contemporary African literature, the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the Nigerian Ben Okri, in addition to the Angolan 'Ondjaki', pseudonym chosen by the versatile Ndalu de Almeida, are the winners of the 1st edition of the ‘Grinzane for Africa’ award.

Grinzane over the years has always placed Africa and its literature in the forefront: from the awards conferred to those who later became three Nobel prize laureates (John Maxwell Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Wole Soyinka) to the convention "The desert and further".

"African literature from oral to written", organized last year and that brought to Italy dozens of writers from every corner of Africa to speak about the African cultures and literature. Following this example, the Piedmont prize moves for an extraordinary session in Africa, an unprecedented fact for an Italian literature award – in a goal to celebrate world recognized African writers each year and introduce young authors just entering the international scene.

"The convention aims to offer a moment of dialogue between the African and western worlds. More than a recognition of contemporary literature works, the gathering proposes to the writers an opportunity to introduce themselves and their world; an opportunity to reveal that there is not only an Africa of huts, forests or wars, but also of skyscrapers, internet and mobile phones, extraordinary cultural traditions and a literature rich with themes and styles", underline the organizers.