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Boubacar Boris Diop Wins Prestigious 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine, announced on October 26 that Boubacar Boris Diop is the 27th laureate of the renowned Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The Neustadt Prize recognizes outstanding literary merit in literature worldwide.
Wolophone and Francophone writer Diop (b. 1946, Dakar, Senegal) is the author of many novels, plays and essays. He was awarded the Senegalese Republic Grand Prize in 1990 for Les Tambours de la mémoire as well as the Prix Tropiques for The Knight and His Shadow. His Doomi Golo was the first novel to be translated from Wolof into English. Toni Morrison called his novel Murambi: The Book of Bones “a miracle,” and the Zimbabwe International Book Fair listed it as one of the 100 best African books of the 20th century.
Robert Con Davis-Undiano, World Literature Today’s executive director, notes that “it is a high honor that a senior African writer of Mr. Diop’s stature has won the Neustadt Prize. This is landmark for the prize and for Mr. Diop’s growing and much-deserved renown in the West.”
Highly respected within the literary community for its recognition of excellence, the Neustadt Prize is often referenced as the “American Nobel”. Any living author writing from anywhere in the world is eligible for the Neustadt Prize. The jury is composed of acclaimed international authors. The Neustadt Prize announcement was made via Zoom as part of the 2021 Neustadt Lit Fest.
BOUBACAR BORIS DIOP 