Skimming through the Daily Graphic this morning (Tuesday 28 February) I came across an advert – incidentally with several spelling mistakes! – which naturally caught my eye: the announcement of the 2011 winners for Ghana of the Burt Award for African Literature. These are:
- 1st prize: The kaya girl, by Mamle Wolo (published by Kwadwoan Publishers)
- 2nd prize: The lost treasure, by Ruby Y Goka (published by Kwadwoan Publishers)
- 3rd prize: Akosua and Osman, by Manu Herbstein (published by Techmate Publishers) [not sure where this publisher is]
honorary mention:
- Shoes for her feet, by Laurene Boateng [no mention of a publisher]
- Betrayed by the city, by Ida Fynn Thompson [no mention of a publisher]
The Burt Award is organized in Ghana by the Ghana Book Trust and CODE (a Canadian NGO, which helps children to learn by supporting libraries, teacher training and book publishing in developing countries).
Actually this announcement is almost the same as the one I later found on the GBT website, so I do pay credit as it is due. To be frank the three prize winners were not totally a surprise as two of them had indicated to me late in 2011 that they were in the running.
Congratulations to all!
The question I ask as a book buyer: where in Accra can I buy these titles?
Accra books and things 
This is useful, I will be travelling to the UK. I will visit Waterstones to see if they have any of these titles.
Unfortunately I am not sure whether any of them will be available in the UK, and I know that at least two were published in Ghana, and possibly one other . And none of these publishers are known for their international reach, at least as far as I know.
I hope they make copies available here in South Africa. Distribution has often been a major problem.
Not sure you will have much look on that front. Even finding copies here in Ghana can be a struggle!
can you imagine the same publisher whose authour won from last year won again this year when the award criteria indicated that publishing houses who win in a current year cannot submit another manuscript in the following year?
I wanted to check when this criteria came into effect, but unfortunately I couldn’t find the information I wanted as I couldn’t access the Ghana Book Trust website (http://www.ghanabooktrust.com )
try again… it sounds fishy to me.
I think if you are interested in submitting a work for consideration for the Burt prizes you should work with a publisher and then if it is considered good the publisher submits the manuscript.