I was aware that the Burt Award for African literature 2009 was going to be officially announced on 4 August here in Accra, at the Ghana Book Trust, but didn’t go to the function.
However, this morning, I see that Nana Fredua-Agyeman at ImageNations has already blogged about it.
Once again, nothing in the news part of the main state-owned press so far, but Ghanaian Times did have two adverts related to the award in the 5 August edition. One was an invitation to publishers to tender, but the other was actually more in the form of a press release. There is a copy of the “Announcement of winners” on the GLA website.
If I find more stories on the web related to these awards, I will put up the links.
It is Burt not Birt. Good to see the post though.
You are right. Mea culpa. Thanks for letting me know…
And I posted something on it on the day. i was actually present at the ceremony.
I did see it, and thanks for the comment
Hi,
I can’t seem to find a way to email you. If there is one, could you please send it to me at: sempe30@gmail.com or post it on my blog: ewurabasempe.wordpress.com Thank you!
Mamle Kabu and I were recently published in the African Women Writing Resistance anthology. I am planning to be in Ghana for a couple weeks and want to be sure and connect with some literary folks when I am in town. I am excited to have found your blog. Keep writing!
Ewuraba Sempe
Will email you separately.
The Burt Award is a good and fresh addition to the literary scene in Ghana. I hope this would spice more Ghanaians to pick up the pen and write. It is about time we all got involved just like our Nigerian and South African neighbors.
The Burt Award’s a welcome breath of fresh air. Ghanaian literature’s practically dead in my view. aside the more established names like Ama Ata Aidoo, Kofi Awoonor etc., i can think of no up and coming Ghanaian writers resident in Ghana today. The age-old art of oral story telling is no more and we have a very terrible reading culture. i dare say there’s none at all. Burt’s a reason for folks to pick up a pen and start writing something. forget winning the prize, writing’s liberating. best form of therapy that costs you nothing but a piece of paper and a pen. not a day passes by without me writing at least a poetry piece. can’t wait to submit my piece for this….God bless Bill Burt, he could have chosen to do a million things with this amount of money. in my mind, he’s invested in posterity.