The Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation has announced the complete shortlists for the inaugural Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prizes.
Two South African authors, Kirsten Miller and Zirk van den Berg, and Kenyan author Stanley Gazemba have made the shortlist for Best Unpublished Adventure Manuscript.
Miller is the author of All is Fish – shortlisted for the 2005 European Union Literary Award – and Sister Moon.
New Zealand-based Van den Berg’s first crime novel, Nobody Dies, was published to considerable acclaim in his adopted country, and an Afrikaans edition was released as ’n Ander mens in South Africa in 2013. Half of One Thing is his first English novel to appear in his native South Africa, and was recently optioned for film by independent producer Neil Sonnekus of New Zealand production company Stinkwood Films.
Kenyan author Gazemba is the author of The Stone Hills of Maragoli, which won the 2003 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Ghettoboy, which was shortlisted for the Kwani? Manuscript Prize and most recently Callused Hands.
Find out more from the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation:
We are delighted to announce the names for two additional prizes. These are:
Best Unpublished Adventure Manuscript
John Righten for Churchill’s Rogue
Kirsten Miller for The Hum of the Sun
Stanley Gazemba for Khama
Mark Isherwood for Dutch
Zirk van den Berg for Starlight and Stone
The winner of the prize for the best unpublished manuscript will be offered the opportunity of a creative writing residency at the University of Cape Town and career guidance from Wilbur Smith’s literary agent Kevin Conroy Scott.
Author of Tomorrow Award
Alex Atkinson for Jungle Gold
Rory Hinshelwood for And With the Wind It Went
Alice Sargent for Cherokee Rose
The winner of the author of tomorrow award (for the best adventure short story under 5,000 words, written by someone between the ages of 12 and 21) will receive £1,000 pounds sterling.
The prizes will be awarded at a prestigious event, hosted by the BBC’s Kate Silverton, at the Royal Geographical Society on 12 May, 2016.
The shortlist for the £10,000 first prize, the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, was announced earlier this month:
- Corban Addison: The Tears of Dark Water (Quercus)
- Manda Scott: Into the Fire (Bantam)
- Roger Hobbs: Vanishing Games (Corgi)
- Ben Kane:Eagles at War (Arrow)
- Andy McDermott: The Revelation Code (Headline)
- Simon Scarrow: Britannia (Headline)
Niso Smith, Founder of the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation says: “The Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation was created to allow us to share our love of adventure writing with the world. Over the years, we have travelled together through Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and in every country and culture we have found storytellers weaving tales of adventure. The foundation’s aim is to aim is to introduce true talent from across the globe to the reading world.”
Ends
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Book details
- The Tears of Dark Water by Corban Addison
EAN: 9781848663138
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- Into the Fire by Manda Scott
EAN: 9780552169578
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- Vanishing Games by Roger Hobbs
EAN: 9780552170031
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- Eagles at War by Ben Kane
EAN: 9780099580744
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- The Revelation Code by Andy McDermott
EAN: 9780755380787
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- Britannia by Simon Scarrow
EAN: 9781472213303
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