Petina Gappah has been honoured with the 2026 Flora Nwapa Literary Society Award, recognising the Zimbabwean writer's contributions to the literary world. This makes her the second Zimbabwean writer to receive the honour after Tsitsi Dangarembga.
"I'm thrilled to be the 2026 recipient of the Flora Nwapa Literary Society Award. I'm honoured to be given an award that honours the first African woman ever published," shared Gappah via X.
"I'm also stoked beyond belief as the award was also given to one of my household goddesses, Toni Morrison."
The award was first presented in 1997 and it recognises distinguished trailblazers in writing, publishing, and leadership across Africa and the diaspora. Gappah joined the ranks of Toni Morrison, Professor Mĩcere Githae Mũgo, and Umari Ayim who are among the award's previous winners.
Flora Nwapa's Njuru was the first African woman author to publish an English language novel internationally in 1966, and also the first African woman to establish and run a publishing house.
Gappah's debut book was the short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), which was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short-story form, as well as for the Orwell Prize and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
In 2015 she published her debut novel The Book of Memory, which was followed by the short story collection Rotten Row inc2016, and then the novel Out of Darkness, Shining Light in 2019. Gappah has won the Guardian First Book Award, the McKitterick Prize, the Chautauqua Prize, and a National Arts Merit Award.
"I'm thrilled to be the 2026 recipient of the Flora Nwapa Literary Society Award. I'm honoured to be given an award that honours the first African woman ever published," shared Gappah via X.
"I'm also stoked beyond belief as the award was also given to one of my household goddesses, Toni Morrison."
The award was first presented in 1997 and it recognises distinguished trailblazers in writing, publishing, and leadership across Africa and the diaspora. Gappah joined the ranks of Toni Morrison, Professor Mĩcere Githae Mũgo, and Umari Ayim who are among the award's previous winners.
Flora Nwapa's Njuru was the first African woman author to publish an English language novel internationally in 1966, and also the first African woman to establish and run a publishing house.
Gappah's debut book was the short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), which was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short-story form, as well as for the Orwell Prize and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
In 2015 she published her debut novel The Book of Memory, which was followed by the short story collection Rotten Row inc2016, and then the novel Out of Darkness, Shining Light in 2019. Gappah has won the Guardian First Book Award, the McKitterick Prize, the Chautauqua Prize, and a National Arts Merit Award.