Namwali Serpell won a 2020 Windham–Campbell Prize for Literature in Fiction and a 2011 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. She was selected for the Africa 39, a 2013 Hay Festival Project to identify the best African writers under 40.
Her first novel, The Old Drift (Hogarth, 2019), won the Anisfield–Wolf Book Award for Fiction “that confronts racism and explores diversity,” the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, the L.A. Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and the Grand Prix des Associations Littéraires Prize for Belles-Lettres in 2020. It was short listed for the L.A. Times’ Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction and the Nommo Award for Best African Speculative Fiction, and long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown in 2019.
Her second novel, The Furrows: An Elegy, was published by Hogarth on September 27, 2022. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction; it was long listed for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. It was named one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books and 100 Notable Books of 2022.
Her nonfiction book, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, Believer Book Award for Nonfiction, and the 2021 Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award.
Her Yale Review essay, “Navel-Gazing,” was selected for The Best American Essays 2025, edited by Jia Tolentino.
Her essay, “She’s Capital,” won the 2023 American Society of Magazine Editor’s Award for Reviews and Criticism.
Her NYT Magazine essay, “River of Time,” was selected for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2021, edited by Ed Yong.
Her story, “Take it,” was a finalist for the 2020 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award.
Her essay, “On Black Difficulty: Toni Morrison,” won the 2019 Brittle Paper Award for Best Essay.
Her story, “The Sack,” won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing.
Her story, “Muzungu,” was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2009, edited by Alice Sebold, and was a finalist for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing.
Photos © Yanina Gotsulsky © Caine Prize 2015, © Caine Prize 2010.
