2021 Nommo Award Winners
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS FOR 2021
Below are the Winners in each of the 4 categories for the 2021 Nommo Awards:
Novel (The Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African)
Novella
Short Story
Graphic Novel
Read the original Short List and Long List.
NOVEL WINNER
THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI
Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer and video artist. A recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award for 2018, Emezi has been awarded a Global Arts Fund grant and a Sozopol Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction. They won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa, and their novel Freshwater was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Read more at akwaeke.com.
The Death of Vivek Oji:
One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious...
NOVELLA WINNER
IFE-IYOKU: THE TALE OF IMADEYUNUAGBON
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, slush reader and editor from Nigeria with a background in Law. He has won the Nommo award, the Horror Writers Association diversity grant and been a finalist in the This is Horror, British Science Fiction Association, Locus, and Nebula awards. Read more at ekpeki.wordpress.com.
Ife-Iyoku: The Tale of Imadeyunuagbon:
A third world war wipes out nearly all life in Africa. Survivors gather in Ife-Iyoku, spiritual capital of the ancient Oyo empire where they evolve, developing powers to survive.
SHORT STORY WINNERS (TIED)
Innocent Chizaram Ilo
2 March 2020, Strange Horizons
Innocent Chizaram Ilo was a shortlistee for the Wilbur Smith 2019 Author of Tomorrow award, and a Gerald Kraak Award finalist for their story “Limbo”. Their stories have been published in a variety of publications, including Transcendent 4: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, and the SSDA ID anthology. Read more at @ethereal_ilo.
Rat and Finch Are Friends:
I understand that school will never be the same. Mr. Okeke, the Dorm Master, had resounded in my ears that when the new term resumes, I must never talk to Rat, I must never come close to him, that the both of us are not to talk to each other...
Read the full story here.
2 March 2020, Strange Horizons
Tlotlo Tsamaase
16 October 2020, Africanfuturism Anthology published by Brittle Paper
Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana writer (xe/xem/xer or she/her pronouns) currently living in Botswana. Tlotlo’s novella, THE SILENCE OF THE WILTING SKIN, is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist and was shortlisted for a 2021 Nommo Award. Tlotlo’s short fiction has appeared in The Best of World SF Volume 1, Futuri uniti d'Africa, Clarkesworld, Terraform, Africanfuturism Anthology, The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2021); and is forthcoming in AFRICAN RISEN anthology, Apex Magazine’s International Futurists issue and other publications. Xer story, Behind Our Irises, is a Nommo Award finalist for Best Short Story (2021). You can find xem at www.tlotlotsamaase.com and on Twitter and Instagram as @tlotlotsamaase.
Behind Our Irises:
Every eye in our firm runs surveillance programs behind its pupil. Connected through the authenticated enterprise cloud network to the central servers of the Firm. Able to detect corporate theft, infraction, abuse of work assets and more. Much more...
Read the full story here.
16 October 2020, Africanfuturism Anthology published by Brittle Paper
GRAPHIC NOVEL WINNER
Nana Akosua Hanson (writer) AnimaxFYB Studios (art)
In the year 2019 of the New World Order of the Council of the Seti, the Moongirls are four African Supersheroes who fight a physical and philosophical war...