Meshack Asare (born 1945) is a popular African children's author. He was born in Ghana and currently resides in Degenfeld, Germany. On 15 July 2014, he was announced as a finalist for the prestigious international award, the 2015 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature, [1] which he won on 24 October 2014, [2] [3] becoming the first African to receive the award. [4] The Brassman's Secret was his representative text read by the nominating jury, and the award honors his entire body of work.
Meshack Asare was born 18 September 1945 in Nyankumasi, Ghana. His mother Agatha Adoma Afram was a trader and his father Joseph K. Asare was an accountant. Asare was the second of six children. [5] Asare studied Fine Arts at the College of Art in Kumasi, and between 1967 and 1979 he was a teacher in Ghana. [6] During this time he began to write and illustrate children's books, including the much translated Tawia Goes to Sea, which received the Ghana National Book Award and the UNESCO citation "Best picture book from Africa".
After a period of ten years during which he did not publish any work, Asare returned in 1981 with a new book, The Brassman's Secret, which was translated into many languages, and won the Noma Award in 1982 as the best book published in Africa in the preceding year. Many further successes followed. In 1984, Asare's Cat in Search of a Friend won the Austrian National Prize (1985) and a BIB Golden Plaque at the Bratislava Biennale (1995). [6]
Asare studied for a M.A. degree in Social Anthropology at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, [6] and since 1993 he was based in London, while frequently travelling throughout to Africa, looking to experience as many African cultures as possible so as to represent them in his works. His book Sosu's Call was the winner of the 1999 UNESCO First Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance.
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson is an American writer best known for children's novels, including Bridge to Terabithia. For four different books published 1975–1980, she won two Newbery Medals and two National Book Awards. She is one of four people to win the two major international awards; for "lasting contribution to children's literature" she won the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 1998 and for her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2006, the biggest monetary prize in children's literature. Also for her body of work she was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2007 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association in 2013. She was the second US National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, serving 2010 and 2011.
Naomi Shihab Nye is an Arab American poet, editor, songwriter, and novelist. Born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, she began composing her first poetry at the age of six. In total, she has published or contributed to over 30 volumes of poetry. Her works include poetry, young-adult fiction, picture books, and novels. Nye received the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in honor of her entire body of work as a writer, and in 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People's Poet Laureate for the 2019–21 term.
Boubacar Boris Diop is a Senegalese novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His best known work, Murambi, le livre des ossements, is the fictional account of a notorious massacre during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He is also the founder of Sol, an independent newspaper in Senegal, and the author of many books, political works, plays and screenplays. Doomi Golo (2003) is one of the only novels ever written in Wolof; it deals with the life of a Senegalese Wolof family. The book was published by Papyrus Afrique, Dakar.
Bediako Asare is a Ghanaian journalist and author, initially from Ghana. He began his career working on local newspapers, then relocated to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1963, to help launch The Nationalist newspaper.
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, World Literature Today.
The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, which ran from 1980 to 2009, was an annual $10,000 prize for outstanding African writers and scholars who published in Africa. Within four years of its establishment, the prize "had become the major book award in Africa". It was one of the series of Noma Prizes.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, born in the United Kingdom to parents from Ghana, where he was raised, is a performance poet, writer, publisher and sociocultural commentator. He is one of 39 writers aged under 40 from sub-Saharan Africa who in April 2014 were named as part of the Hay Festival's prestigious Africa39 project. He writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo.
Peter Sís is a Czech-born American illustrator and writer of children's books. As a cartoonist his editorial illustrations have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Esquire, and The Atlantic Monthly. In 2012 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his "lasting contribution" as an illustrator of children's literature.
World Literature Today (WLT) is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The magazine's stated goal is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book reviews for a non-academic audience. It was founded under the name Books Abroad in 1927 by Roy Temple House, a professor at the University of Oklahoma. In January 1977, the journal assumed its present name, World Literature Today.
Leonard Everett Fisher was an American artist best known for illustrating children's books. From 1955 he illustrated about 250 books for younger readers including about 88 that he also wrote.
The Noma Prizes were established by Shoichi Noma, or in his honor. More than one award is conventionally identified as the Noma Prize. Noma was the former head of Kodansha, the Japanese publishing and bookselling company. Kodansha is Japan's largest publisher of literature and manga.
Virginia Euwer Wolff is an American author of children's literature. Her award-winning series Make Lemonade features a 14-year-old girl named LaVaughn, who babysits for the children of a 17-year-old single mother. There are three books. The second, True Believer, won the 2001 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The second and third, This Full House (2009), garnered Kirkus Reviews starred reviews. She was the recipient of the 2011 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature, honoring her entire body of work.
Brian Doyle is a Canadian writer of novels and short stories. His children's books have been adapted into movies and plays. Many of his stories are drawn from his experiences growing up in the Ottawa area. He was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2005 and was twice a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, biographer, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former Poet Laureate of Connecticut. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal. From 1978 to 1994, she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of more than twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry.
Margarita Engle is a Cuban American poet and author of many award-winning books for children, young adults and adults. Most of Engle's stories are written in verse and are a reflection of her Cuban heritage and her deep appreciation and knowledge of nature. She became the first Latino awarded a Newbery Honor in 2009 for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom. She was selected by the Poetry Foundation to serve from 2017 to 2019 as the sixth Young People's Poet Laureate. On October 9, 2018, Margarita Engle was announced the winner of the 2019 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. She was nominated by 2019 NSK Prize jury member Lilliam Rivera.
Ndalu de Almeida is a writer born in Angola who uses the pen name Ondjaki. He has written poetry, children's books, short stories, novels, drama and film scripts.
The Golden Baobab Prize is awarded annually to African writers of children's literature and young adult literature. The Golden Baobab Prize accepts entries of unpublished short stories written by African citizens irrespective of age, race or geographical location. The prize is awarded annually to African citizens who submit a short story geared toward children and/or young adults in one of three categories: Junior Category, Senior Category and a Rising Writer prize for a promising writer aged 18 years and under. Entry into the prize is by email, submitted stories should be unpublished works in English. Established in July 2008, the Golden Baobab Prize is an African literary award that aims to encourage the writing of African literature for children and young adults. Its mission is to identify African literary giants of the next generation and produce classic African stories that will be appreciated for years to come.
Samuel Asare Konadu was a Ghanaian journalist, novelist, and publisher who also wrote under the pseudonym Kwabena Asare Bediako.
Mildred DeLois Taylor is a Newbery Award-winning American young adult novelist. She is best known for her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, part of her Logan family series.
Richrd Emmanuel Obeng was a Ghanaian Basel Catechist and teacher. He is credited for writing one of Africa's earliest and Ghana's first novel titled Eighteenpence. The novel was published in 1942.
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