Novelist Reem Gaafar has received The Island Prize for African Novels 2023 for the manuscript of her debut novel, A Mouth Full of Salt, on 16 June 2023. She is the first Sudanese novelist to be nominated for and win the award.
Established by South African writer Karen Jennings, The Island Award is a literary award, which aims to provide resources and support for new writers on the African continent, and help African writers break into the UK publishing arena.
Open to unpublished novelists from all African countries or the diaspora, this award was established in honour of Jennings’s novel, An Island, which has been longlisted for the Booker prize in 2021.
Announced in April 2023, Gaafar was nominated for the award along with nine African writers, including three writers from South Africa, two from Nigeria, one from Zimbabwe, one from Tanzania and one from Kenya.
Gaafar is walking away from the award as well as a £500 (GBP/Sterling). Runners up receive £200.
This year’s prize judges were Jennings, British author Rachel Edwards and Algerian writer Hamza Koudri, who was a runner up for The Island Prize 2022.
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