Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins Women’s Prize for Fiction ‘Winner of Winners’ Award
Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction ‘Winner of Winners’ for her novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimamanda’s novel was chosen over other novels by professional writers like Zadie Smith, the late Andrea levy, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain and Maggie O’Farrell, amongst others. Over 8,500 people joined in the public vote in September 2020.
The award marks the peak of the prize’s year-long 25th-anniversary celebrations, forming a vital part of the ‘Reading Women Campaign,’ which has championed 25years of phenomenal winners. Since 2020, thousands of readers started a challenge to read the book of all the 25 previous winners of the prize, joining the prize’s digital book club to share their thoughts and downloading the newly created online reading guides of the prize as well as exclusive author interviews.
Chimamanda’s Half of a Yellow Sun originally won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, (then the orange prize) in 2007. The temporal setting of the novel was the era of the Biafran war in Nigeria. The story tells of the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class, race, female empowerment and how love can complicate all of these.
Commenting on her award, Chimamanda said,
“I’m especially moved to be voted ‘Winner of Winners’ because this is the prize that first brought a wide readership to my work – and has also introduced me to the work of many talented writers.”
Chimamanda will be given a specially commissioned silver edition of the prize’s annual statuette, called the Bessie, originally created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven, as part of the gifts from an anonymous donor.
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Also speaking on her award, the founder and director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Novelist and playwright Kate Mosse said,
“I am thrilled that Half of a Yellow Sun has won the silver Winner of Winners. Our aim has always been to promote and celebrate the classics of tomorrow today and to build a library of exceptional, diverse, outstanding international fiction written by women. The ‘Reading Women’ campaign has been the perfect way to introduce a new generation of readers to the brilliance of all of our twenty-five winners and to honour the phenomenal quality and range of women’s writing from all over the world. Congratulations to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and here’s to our next quarter century!”
Chimamanda’s work has been translated into thirty different languages and has appeared in numerous publications. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which was published in 2003 was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2005, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.
Asides winning the Women’s Prize in 2007, Half of a Yellow Sun was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, a New York Times Notable Book, and a People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of the Year.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is an award presented for the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom. The Prize recognizes excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing. The winner receives a cheque of £30,000, along with a limited edition bronze statuette known as the ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven.