2022 ARIBP Winner Awarded On 24 August 2023 |
The Afrika Redefined Indie Book Prize is awarded annually for the best independently published book (fiction, poetry, and non-fiction). The Prize is open to Kenyan independent writers resident in Kenya, on the continent, and in the diaspora.
The Afrika Redefined Indie Book Prize is managed by Mystery Publishers, a Kenyan premier pan-African independent publisher with a bias toward African speculative fiction and genre/pop literature stories.
The Prize aims to recognise quality self-published books with unique and extraordinary stories addressing current and future Africa (Afro-currency and Afro-futurism) for books at most three (3) years old since publication. The winner shall receive Ksh 20,000, scholarships to select creative writing courses at Mystery Creative Writing Training Institue, and a book distribution offer to all Mystery Publishers distribution channels.
The 2022 Prize was only open for Mystery Publishers’ books/authors, and after thoroughly considering the books published since 2019, public voting is now open for the 2022 shortlisted books.
Please, vote for the book with the most compelling story that you feel addresses our current and future Africa.
Genre: Poetry
Language: English/Kiswahili
Year Published: 2019
A military poetry collection of its kind. The book shows the emotional aspect of our men and women in service, their families, and the void they leave when they pay the ultimate price. It presents the nexus between war and women’s experiences, the trauma of broken families from losing a loved one because of war. It wouldn’t have come at a better time when the Kenya Defence Forces have been in Somalia fighting to keep their loved ones back home in Kenya safe from terrorists. The price soldiers and their families pay is great, leaving a bottomless void and immense sorrow.
The book addresses what is happening currently in Africa: the scourge of terrorism in Somalia, the Central Africa Republic, Mozambique, and the Boko Haram menace in West Africa. Families are devasted across Africa because of war, militaries committed to a faceless enemy, and the gallant soldiers who never give up.
Genre: Fiction (Novel)
Language: English
Year Published: 2019
When her boyfriend goes missing without a trace, Hedwig Sanzi Joe is not prepared to face reality. As she tries to understand what really happened, she is drawn into a vortex of a dark past, secrets, and betrayal.
Every step she makes, everything she does, is a terrible mistake with catastrophic outcomes.
As she navigates through the murky waters of her new life, her dead boyfriend returns to life when her marriage has hit the rocks. Hedwig has a fierce battle to fight—the desires of her heart and the ticking bomb that’s her marriage.
Genre: Fiction (Novella)
Language: English
Year Published: 2020
When you go to Cannibal City to better yourself, you find cannibals, people who turn living there into walking a tightrope!
In their conscience, it’s normal for a University graduate to stoop to common menial labours except they are blood-related to the rich.
Whether or not its shanty population suffers from pollution-related diseases is solely up to the victims.
And public coffers long switched belonging to the city’s rich, the poor having to worship them for meagre favours.
This book speaks for the shanty population, warning the rich against the unhealthy exploitation of the poor.
Genre: Fiction (Short Stories)
Language: English
Year Published: 2021
Terrorism and the terror it causes; the counter-terrorism operatives combating the menace; impacts of unbridled hedonism and anger; and how an obsession with traditions kills societies.
It is a cocktail of stories straddling different aspects of life; the author presents the psychological trauma afflicting a society rather falling into despondency.
The Merchants of Terror is a collection of short stories depicting life clutching at straws of hope
Genre: Anthology (Poetry)
Language: English
Year Published: 2021
An anthology by African poets to celebrate new-age African writing.
‘Our Stories Redefined’ annual anthology is the vehicle for new-age African writers to tell their stories to a generation that understands them.
In this 2021 (poetry) edition, the poems cut across the generations. They paint a picture of a new generation not grappling with Afro-modernity but embracing Afro-currency with a hope for a better future for Africa.
Genre: Anthology (Flash Fiction)
Language: English
Year Published: 2022
In this 2022 flash fiction edition, the stories focus on Afro-modernity and Afro-futurism, mainly on familial and societal relationships. It is a collection of souls wishing to be understood in a chaotic and complex environment born out of years of conditioning.
The characters in this anthology are struggling with one problem or another, a mirror of our society. It is not a collection of cynical characters but characters who have refused to drown in the world’s cynicism.