Liza Esterhuyse

from South Africa

Winner of the 2013 Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Book:

Biography:

Liza Esterhuyse is a qualified occupational therapist who has a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Intervention. Liza is many things: a daydreamer, a book junkie, a red wine drinker, a world lover, a tree hugger, a dog enthusiast, a horse admirer and a Capetonian..

The Little Hippo:

Faraway in the savannah a little hippo sighed. The rains were late and the hippo-pool was getting very crowded. Then he notices the wildebeest, zebras and antelope gathering for their annual migration and he decides to join them. However, the little hippo quickly realises that the journey is not as easy as he thought and that it’s filled with danger. Luckily, he meets friends along the way who help and guide him through the migration.

Karen Hurt

from South Africa

Winner of the 2013 Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Book:

Biography:

Karen Hurt is an independent writer, editor, materials developer and writing workshops facilitator who lives in Johannesburg. She was born in Zambia where she spent her early childhood before moving to South Africa. Whenever Karen can carve out the time, she loves to slip into her ‘other world’ and write fiction.

What's Going on at 179 Jabulani Street? Summary

Jama’s life is upside down and going down further until he reluctantly accepts the pink jacket his father insists on buying him from a secondhand clothes seller on a freezing evening in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. He finds keys and an address in Yeoville in the pockets. This is the beginning of a dangerous adventure that leads to a new friendship with a girl called Sophie who Jama discovers the jacket had belonged to. Parting with the truth when it comes to telling their parents what they are up to, Jama and Sophie discover a Mozambican craftsman at 179 Jabulani Street who has been trapped in the rhino horn trade by a fierce poacher. They come up with a plan to help him escape and get the syndicate bust. Along the way they make partners with and inherit a dog they rename Licks.

Kanengo Rebecca Diallo

from Tanzania

Winner of the 2013 Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers:

Biography:

Twelve year old Kanengo Rebecca Diallo lives in the city of Dar-Es-Salam, Tanzania, with her mother, Nuru, her father, Anthony, and her two siblings. Since she was eight years old, Kanengo’s dream has been to become a world renowned author of books and if lucky, best-selling books. Kanengo discovered that she has a unique talent of drawing manga or anime comics. Usually when she writes her stories, she turns them into anime cartoon drawings.

Pieces of Africa Summary:

This is a story about four children with diverse backgrounds who are from different parts of Africa. They are chosen to find all the magical puzzle pieces scattered around Africa in order to save the world. They all came from a long lineage of puzzle finders that started since the beginning of time but in trying to find the pieces, all their ancestors failed and died. Now it was up to them to gather all the pieces within a set period of time or else they, and the whole world will perish.

Joy Nwiyi

from Nigeria

Winner of the 2012 Golden Baobab Prize, Senior Category:

Biography:

Joy Nwiyi is a graduate of the University of Calabar and also holds an M.A. degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She resides with her family East of the Niger in Nigeria. She writes poetry, short stories and mentors young people amongst other activities.

Something for Next Time Summary:

Fidé longs for the adventure and freedom that comes with his age. He invents different pranks and strategies to outwit his parents. Amusingly, his pranks are found out with every new invention. The most daring brings him an outcome he is not ready for and he has his ‘freedom’ checked. The story interestingly is told from the young, and yet bold narrative voice of his younger brother who wonders why his big brother must go to such extents to invent mischief considering the consequences.

Jenny Robson

from Botswana and South Africa

Winner of the 2012 Golden Baobab Prize, Junior Category:

Biography:

Jenny Robson is a music teacher who lives and works in Maun, Botswana on the edge of the Okavango Delta. She says, "The exciting, full-on noise of music and the thoughtful silence of writing are the perfect combination for me." She has had ten young adult novels published and has won several awards including the UNESCO Prize for Youth Literature in the Service of Tolerance. Jenny is a widow with two adult sons who live and work in London, UK.

Wha-Zup Dude? Summary

Kesha longs to have a cellphone, but he doesn't have much hope of getting one. Then he finds a cellphone hidden in some bushes and takes it home. He will just keep it for a little while, he decides, just to enjoy how it feels.

But there is a call. Kesha answers and hears a frightening man speaking on the other end. Kesha panics: he wants to put the cellphone back where he found it as quickly as possible. But will he manage without being caught?

Rutendo Chabikwa

from Zimbabwe

Winner of the 2012 Golden Baobab Prize, Rising Writer Category:

Biography:

Rutendo Renee Chabikwa was born on the 6th of October in 1994 in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. She was awarded a scholarship to study for an International Baccalaureate with the United World Colleges at Lester B. Pearson College in British Columbia, Canada. Rutendo started writing at a very tender age, and while she is honored to receive recognition for her short fiction, her main focus has always been poetry. Writing has always been a passion of hers as she loves to express her creativity through language.

Letters from the City Summary:

This story is about friendship that extends beyond any hardships. The narrator is a village youth who has been left by the only friend she knew in a pursuit of better future. The only means of communication available to them is letter-writing. With accounts and descriptions so close to home, the narrator takes the reader on a journey of true friendship and city adventures.

A Healing Adventure Summary:

Inspired by the death of close relatives, the author wrote this story to show the hopes that she had for the survival of her relative. The story is about a group of boys who venture into the village mountains in search of a fairy tale character, a friendly snake to save their aunt. The story goes from hope, to fatigue, to celebration through their persistence, and it rejuvenates an unwavering faith in childhood stories.

Ken Fansworth

from South Africa

Best Story for ages 12-15 years

Bio:
Ken Farnsworth is married with three girls (now aged between 19 and 26 years) and resides on a smallholding set in the African bush outside Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Recently turning (a ‘young’) fifty years of age, Ken tried his hand at creative writing. His efforts at writing about his passion, about Africa, about the bush, about the goings on in it - the wars, hunting, survival - resulted in several short stories being published in magazines and newspapers. Through this gift he hopes to lure others into developing the same love and respect he has for this great continent.

Winning Story: The Rooster
A father’s gumboots, a feisty fowl, a developing hostility that smacks of the xenophobia currently displayed in some parts of southern Africa are all elements that play a role in a grieving boy’s first steps towards manhood. The Rooster captures a brief but telling period in the life of a gumboot-wearing boy—gumboots bequeathed to him by his father—and his violent encounters with a rooster each time he traverses a local mining village. The attacks lead to an animosity that reaches a climax when the mine is abandoned and the rooster, avoiding all attempts to capture it, escapes into the bush. Out there, much to the boy’s anger, the alien creature not only thrives but it also continues to launch its assaults whenever their paths cross. Humiliated by the bird and mocked by his friends the boy plots its demise. After several failed attempts to exact retribution he eventually has his arch-enemy in his grasp and the opportunity to destroy it. Can he do so?

Edyth Bulbring

from South Africa

Best Story for ages 8-11 years

Bio:
Edyth Bulbring was born in Boksburg and grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She attended the University of Cape Town where she did a BA and edited the University newspaper Varsity. She worked as a journalist for fifteen years and was political correspondent at the Sunday Times covering the constitutional negotiations and first democratic elections. After completing her MBA at Wits University in 1999, she was a project manager for a few years before quitting corporate life. She is the author of The Club, which was published by Jonathan Ball Publishers in September 2008, and five young adult novels: The Summer of Toffie and Grummer (Oxford University Press, February 2008); Cornelia Button and the Globe of Gamagion (Jacana, April 2008); Pops and The Nearly Dead (Penguin, March 2010); Melly, Mrs Ho and Me (Penguin, September 2010) and Melly, Fatty and Me. (Penguin, September 2011). She lives in Johannesburg

Winning Story: Sour Worms
Sour Worms is about a young girl, Zenani, who has saved up her Saturday job money to buy her grandmother a special present for her seventieth birthday. Zenani's beautiful sister from the big city is also coming home for the birthday party and Zenani would do anything to keep her sister and her fancy present away.

Luc Haasbroek

from South Africa

Best Story written by a Rising Writer, 18 years and below

Bio:
Luc was born on 11 April 1996 and raised in Durban, South Africa. He lives with his parents and younger sister. Luc has always told stories, even before he could write, he told tales that his mother would write down. At 9 years, he wrote his first short story -it revolved around an alien who turns out to be a teddy bear. He was addicted to writing. His love for words grew over the years and when he was 11 he completed his first novel. He is also interested in film and drama. Acting is one of his passions. In 2010, he starred in Neil Coppen's acclaimed play Tree Boy. Since then, he has completed five manuscripts, and he wouldn't trade writing for the world!

Lauri Kubuitsile

from Botswana
Best Story for ages 8-11 years

Bio:
Lauri Kubuitsile is a full time, Motswana writer. She has twelve published works of fiction. She has also written two television series for Botswana Television and her short stories have been published in anthologies and literary magazines around the world.  She’s won numerous writing prizes including the Golden Baobab Prize- junior category (2008/2009), the BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest (South Africa- 2007) and the Botswana  Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture’s Orange Botswerere Prize for Creative Writing (2007). She was recently chosen to be a writer in residence in El Gouna Egypt for the month of May 2010.

Winning Story: The Mechanic's Son
I approach stories in many ways. In this case I had the title, The Mechanic’s Son, inspired by a book by Chris Abani. I wanted to write a story about all the ways that we don’t really know people, the ways we get derailed by things with no relevance and then miss the important things that truly define a person.

Mirirai Moyo

from Zimbabwe
Best Story for ages 8-11 years

Bio:
Mirirai Moyo is a freelance writer. She was born on July 5 1979, in Mberengwa, Zimbabwe and presently lives in Gweru, Zimbabwe. Mirirai’s first effort to appear in print was a composition published in a school yearbook when she was ten years old. During her High School years, she had a few stories in The New Generation newspaper. In 1996 she was the Harare Region Winner for the Randalls National Essay Competition. Mirirai’s short stories also featured in The Sunday Mail, Fascinating Tales and Parade. Some of her writing have also been in DRUM Magazine’s Fiction segment. Her radio play, Belonging, was awarded Honourable Mention in the BBC African Performance 2008.

Winning Story: Diki, The Little Earthworm
Diki, the Little Earthworm is having a miserable morning underground. Nothing seems right. So he goes above ground hoping that the change will do him good. But once out in the open, everything gets off to a bad start. He is mistreated by everyone who comes across him. And then along comes a kind Ant.

Ahmed Farah

from Kenya
Best Story written by a writer 18 years and below

Bio:
Ahmed Farah, originally born in the coastal city of Mombasa, was raised in the United States as well as Tanzania and Nairobi. Currently, Farah is a senior in high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, USA. Farah looks forward to attending college, where he hopes to study Political Science.