Arinze Ifeakandu has been announced among the finalists for this year’s Kirkus Prize, for his debut book God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, a collection of nine stories following working class gay men in Nigeria. Earlier this year, in our review, we called the book’s artistic success “a testament to an incoming generation of African writers.” The book has been praised by Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut.
At $50,000, the Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards. The same amount goes to each of three winners in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature.
“This year’s crop of Kirkus Prize finalists is an exhilaratingly diverse collection of books on a wide range of topics from authors across the United States and around the globe,” said Kirkus Reviews editor-in-chief Tom Beer. “Chosen by our hardworking judges from among the very best books our critics reviewed in the past year, these titles are truly on the top shelf of contemporary literature.”
The judges are Deesha Philyaw, Luis Correa, Wendy Smith, and Laurie Muchnick, the fiction editor of Kirkus Reviews.
Ifeakandu is shortlisted in fiction alongside Michelle de Kretser for Scary Monsters, Hernan Diaz for Trust, and Susan Straight for Mecca. Also in the category are two translated books: Scattered All Over the Earth, written by Yoko Tawada and translated by Margaret Mitsutani, and The Books of Jacob, written by Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and translated by Jennifer Croft.
The winners will be announced on October 27 at a ceremony at the Austin Central Library in Austin, Texas. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel starting at 7pm EDT.
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