Kintu’s ‘Africaness’ pays off for Jennifer Makumbi
Tears of joy: Jennifer Makumbi in 2014 accepting the overall Commonwealth Short Story Prize in Kampala for her story Let’s Tell This Story Properly. PHOTO | MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi summed up her winning of $165,000 for the 2018 Windham Campbell Literature Prize thus: “This is like having worked without pay for a long time and then someone comes along and says, ‘Will a salary for the past 10 years do?’ I am speechless.”
Makumbi, a novelist and short story writer, won the prize for her debut novel, Kintu, published by Transit Books (US) and Oneworld Publications (UK/Commonwealth) this past January.
