Baobab Prize Renamed

The Baobab Prize, an African Literary Award, has changed its name to “The Golden Baobab Prize.” Along with the name-change comes a vibrant new website to foster increased information-sharing and inspire the production of quality African stories to be enjoyed by young readers around the world.

The newly named Golden Baobab, established in July 2008, encourages the writing of African literature for children and young adults by recognizing gifted authors of the genre. It invites entries of unpublished short stories written by African citizens irrespective of age, race, or country of origin. The renamed prize offers a monetary award and connects outstanding stories with an array of African and international publishers.

The Golden Baobab Prize was co-founded by Ghanaian Deborah Ahenkorah and Senegalese-born Rama Shagaya and is overseen by a high-profile Advisory Board comprising of esteemed authors, Ama Ata Aidoo and Patrice Nganang. In addition to the name-change, contestants will also see changes in the Prize’s panel of judges for this year’s competition. The prestigious panelists include esteemed Ghanaian publisher Nana Ayebia Clarke, critically acclaimed Kenyan author Muthoni Garland, two-time former President of the Hans Christian Anderson Award jury Jay Heale, multi prize-winning children’s author and illustrator, Meshack Asare and Global Fund for Children Books Director Cynthia Pon.

“The Golden Baobab Team is pushing faithfully toward its goal of seeing excellent African children’s books stocked in abundance in bookstores all over the world,” co-founder Deborah Ahenkorah commented.

The winners of the 2009/2010 Golden Baobab Prize will be announced on November 8, 2010.