Efua Traoré is a Nigerian-German story writer. She won the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018 and was nominated for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2022.

Efua Traoré
OccupationStory writer
Notable work
  • True Happiness (short story)
  • Children of the Quicksands (novel)
AwardsCommonwealth Short Story Prize (2018)

Life and career

edit

Traoré was born and raised in a small town in the south of Nigeria. She has also resided in France and Germany.[1]

She won the Africa regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her short story "True Happiness" in 2018.[2] In 2019, her debut novel "Children of the Quicksands" won The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition.[3] The novel was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2022.[4]

She received the Munich Literaturreferat YA Literature grant 2019 for her German novel Die Hüter des Schlafes (The Guardians of Sleep).[5]

Books

edit
  • Children of the Quicksands (2021) — a fantasy novel published by The Chicken House[6]
  • The House of Shells (2022) — a children's novel published by The Chicken House

Awards

edit
Year Title Work Result Presented by Ref.
2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize True Happiness Won Commonwealth Foundation [2]
2019 The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition Children of the Quicksands Won The Times / Chicken House [3]
2022 Waterstones Children's Book Prize Children of the Quicksands Nominated Waterstones [4]

References

edit
  1. ^ Ibeh, Chukwuebuka (April 15, 2022). "Efua Traorè is Cover Star for Inaugural Masobe Quarterly Magazine". brittle paper.
  2. ^ a b Omilana, Timileyin (27 June 2018). "Nigerian shortlisted for £5,000 Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2018". The Guardian Nigeria.
  3. ^ a b O’Connell, Alex (September 13, 2019). "Efua Traoré, winner of the Times/Chicken House children's fiction competition". The Times.
  4. ^ a b Sherwin, Adam (February 10, 2022). "Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlist shows TikTok influencers driving sales surge". i News.
  5. ^ "Münchner Literaturstipendien". Literaturhaus München (in German). Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  6. ^ "The best children's books of 2021". The Guardian. 12 December 2021.
edit