On May 11, 2023, in an award ceremony held in London, Arinze Ifeakandu was announced winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize. The judges describe his debut, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, as ‘exhilarating.’
“Arinze Ifeakandu’s debut shines with maturity,” Di Spear–Chair of judges notes. He praises Arinze’s writing as “bold, refreshing and exacting but never afraid to linger and to allow characters and situations to develop and change, so that the longer stories are almost novels in themselves. A kaleidoscopic reflection of queer life and love in Nigeria, the constraints, the dangers and the humanity, this is a collection that we wanted to press into many readers’ hands around the world and which left us excited to know what Arinze Ifeakandu will write next.”
Arinze Ifeakandu was born and raised in Kano, but now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where he studies at Florida State University. He is winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize and O. Henry Prize, 2023. He is a Kirkus Prize finalist, an AKO Caine Prize finalist, A Public Space Writing Fellow, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from A Public Space, Guernica, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, One Story, Redemption Song and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2018.
Other shortlisted titles for this year’s prize are: Limberlost by Robbie Arnott, Seven Steeples by Sara Baume, I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel, Send Nudes by Saba Sams, and Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire.
Previous winners of The Dylan Thomas Prize include: Raven Leilani, Bryan Washington, Guy Gunaratne, Kayo Chingonyi, Fiona McFarlane and Max Porter.
The Dylan Thomas Prize was established in 2006. It awards £20,000 to the ‘best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under’; it celebrates fiction in all its forms, including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama.
Congratulations to Arinze!
Arinze Ifeakandu. Photo credit: Bec Stupak Diop
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