Burt Award To Be Launched in Ghana

June 25, 2009

Graphic Ghana
June 25th, 2009

An award aimed at encouraging and whipping up the spirit of reading and writing English language among young people in Ghana will soon be launched in Accra.

Named after the initiator, Mr Bill Burt, a Canadian, the Burt Award for African Literature is open to Ghanaian authors who can submit original, thought-provoking, dramatic, or humorous manuscripts.

The Ghana Book Trust is coordinating the award on behalf of CODE, a Canadian NGO managing the Burt Award for African Literature.
According to the trust, stories submitted should reflect modern realities and address the concerns of young people in Ghana.

The stories should also have titles that are of excellent quality, have mass appeal and portray strong and admirable characters.

The first prize is gold and valued at 12,000 Canadian Dollars; the second prize, silver, is  valued at 6,000 Canadian Dollars and the third prize, bronze, is worth 3,000 Canadian Dollars.

Publishers who emerge winners will have a guaranteed purchase order of about 5,000  copies per title to be distributed through the Ghana Book Trust network of schools and libraries.

The Executive Director of CODE, Mr Scott Walter, said though Ghana is progressing in the supply of story books to schools, there are gaps which the initiative hopes to help to fill.

He noted that some teachers and parents lack the basic skills of teaching children how to read; a situation that he said needed immediate attention.

The President of the Ghana Book Publishers Association, Mr Asare Konadu Yamoah, expressed worry about Ghanaians’ lack of interest in writing and urged the government to help promote books of Ghanaian writers and publishers abroad to market the country’s culture.