Jumoke Verissimo nominated for First Book Award at Edinburgh book fest

Jumoke Verissimo has been nominated for the First Book Award for her debut novel, A Small Silence which tells the story of Prof, an activist and retired academic out of prison after 10 years. Prof decides to live a life of solitude until a knock at the door changes everything.

The award-winning poet known for I Am Memory, which won the Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize for a first book of poetry, and the Second Prize for the Anthony Agbo Prize first book of poetry, and The Birth of Illusion, which was shortlisted for the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Poetry Prize and longlisted for the Nigerian Prize for Literature.

Her work has been translated into Norwegian, French, Chinese, Japanese and Macedonian. The First Book Award “celebrates the wealth of new fiction featured in the Edinburgh International Book festival programme each year. The winner of the prize is selected through a voting process by readers.”

Published by Cassava Republic Press, readers can vote for A Small Silence by Jumoke Verissimo in the First Book Award.