Three Win Ghana Burt Award for African Literature Awards (BAAL)

November 3, 2010

2010 Burt Award winners in Ghana

Three Ghanaian writers received the first awards of the Burt Award for African Literature on Thursday at the Trade Fair Centre, Accra. The first prize, worth Ghanaian Cedis 16,000, went to Mrs. Elizabeth-Irene Baitie for her story “The Twelfth Heart” published by Kwadwoan Publishing.

Mr. Kwabena Ankomah-Kwakye scooped up the second prize worth Ghanaian Cedis 8,000 for his story “The Deliverer” -published by Sub-Saharan Publishers.

“The Mystery of the Haunted House” written by Ms. Ruby Y. Goka and published by Sub-Saharan Publishers won the third prize Ghanaian Cedis 4,000.  The BAAL is managed by Ghana Book Trust (GBT) with support from CODE. The Award is supported by a Canadian philanthropist Mr. Bill Burt.

The award ceremony was attended by, among others, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana Mrs. Trudy Kernighan, the representative of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Geoffrey Burt on behalf of Mr. Bill Burt, and a representative from the award Jury. The Burt Award for African Literature recognizes outstanding authors and supports the publication of their work so that it can reach young adult readers.

While accepting the awards, the winners retold how they had conceived and developed their stories. They took turns reading from the books to an excited audience of more than 200 comprised of young adults, writers and publisher. The audience was surprised to learn about the careers of each of the writers; for instance Elizabeth is a chemist. She said that her writing was inspired by the books she used to read years ago as well as her life experience in a residential school, and she he encouraged young people to read.

The reviews were very well received. There is no doubt readers will not stop turning the pages when they land on these books.

Thanks to the 98 writers who submitted stories and congratulations to all of the winners. It is also worth mentioning that two stories that did not win have been considered for publication by Ghanaian publishers. Another story will be published in Canada.

The call for submissions for the 2010 Burt Award for African Literature was launched by the Executive Director of Ghana Book Trust (GBT) Mr. Robert Amoako. The Burt Award for African Literature is also implemented in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya.

 

The winning entries for the 2010 competition are:

  • The Twelfth Heart by Mrs Elizabeth-Irene Baitie, a clinical biochemist
  • The second was The Deliverer by Mr. Kwabena Ankomah Kwakye, a Public Relations Officer
  • The third entry was The Mystery of the Haunted House By Ms Ruby Yayra Goka, a dentist