The Golden Baobab Prize (formerly The Baobab Prize) is awarded annually to

African writers This is a list of prominent and notable writers from Africa. It includes poets, novelists, children's writers, essayists, and scholars, listed by country. Algeria ''See: List of Algerian writers'' Angola ''See: List of Angolan writers'' Benin ...

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

and

young adult literature Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

. The Golden Baobab Prize accepts entries of unpublished short stories written by African citizens irrespective of age, race or geographical location. The prize is awarded annually to African citizens who submit a short story geared toward children and/or young adults in one of three categories: Junior Category (stories for readers aged 8 – 11 years), Senior Category (stories for readers aged 12 – 15 years) and a Rising Writer prize for a promising writer aged 18 years and under. Entry into the prize is by email, submitted stories should be unpublished works in English. Established in July 2008, the Golden Baobab Prize is an African literary award that aims to encourage the writing of African literature for children and young adults. Its mission is to identify African literary giants of the next generation and produce classic African stories that will be appreciated for years to come. The Golden Baobab Prize is an initiative of The Golden Baobab Foundation for Education, a nonprofit organization registered in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. The prize is supported by the

African Library Project The African Library Project (ALP) is a non-profit organization that starts libraries in rural Africa. U.S. volunteers organize book drives and ship books to a library in Africa. ALP partners with governmental and non-governmental organizations in ...

, Playing for Change,

Echoing Green In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

, and

The Global Fund for Children Global Fund for Children (GFC) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to transform the lives of the world's most vulnerable children. GFC pursues this mission by making small grants to innovative community-based organiz ...

. The organization operates from its office in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, Ghana, led by co-founder Deborah Ahenkorah. In 2009 the inaugural 2008 winners were awarded $800 each, this was increased to $1000 for the 2009/2010 awards in the Junior and Senior categories.

The Golden Baobab Prize Winners

2008/2009
Junior Lauri Kubuitsile - ''Lorato and her Wire Car'' (Botswana)
Senior Ivor W. Hartmann - ''Mr. Goop'' (Zimbabwe)
Rising Writer: Aisha Kibwana - ''Strange Visitors that took her life away'' (Kenya) 2009/2010
Junior Mirirai Moyo - ''Diki, the Little Earthworm'' (Zimbabwe)
Senior Lauri Kubuitsile - ''Mechanic’s Son'' (Botswana)
Rising Writer: Aisha Kibwana - ''Strange Visitors that took her life away'' (Kenya) 2010/2011
Junior Edyth Bulbring - ''Sour Worms'' (South Africa)
Senior Ken Farnsworth - ''The Rooster'' (South Africa)
Rising Writer: Luc Haasbroek - ''The Dance'' (South Africa) 2014 Portia Dery became the first Ghanaian to win with her story "Grandma's list" for picture book prize.

The Golden Baobab Prize Judges

2009:

Nii Ayikwei Parkes Nii Ayikwei Parkes (; born 1 April 1974), born in the United Kingdom to parents from Ghana, where he was raised, is a performance poet, writer, publisher and sociocultural commentator. He is one of 39 writers aged under 40 from sub-Saharan Africa ...

, Kathy Knowles, and Professor Osayimwense Osa. 2010: Jay Heale, Nana Ayebia Clarke, Muthoni Garland, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Cynthia Pon, and

Meshack Asare Meshack Asare (born 1945) is a popular African children's author. He was born in Ghana and currently resides in Degenfeld, Germany. On 15 July 2014, he was announced as a finalist for the prestigious international award, the 2015 NSK Neustadt Priz ...

. 2011: Brenda Randolph,

Helon Habila Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a C ...

Elinor Sisulu Elinor Sisulu (née Batezat; born 9 March 1958) is a South African writer and activist. Biography She was born Elinor Batezat in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to Francis Batezat and Betty Stuhardt, who was the daughter of George S ...

, Carol Mitchell, and Tanja Galetti.

References

External links

Official WebsiteOfficial TwitterOfficial Facebook group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Baobab Prize Awards established in 2008 African literary awards Ghanaian literary awards Short story awards Children's literary awards