Award winning Nigerian author, Jumoke Verissimo, has been awarded a grant by United Kingdom’s Society of Authors for her next book project.
Verissimo made this known on her official Twitter handle where she expressed how thrilled she was. She however did not disclose the amount.
In an earlier interview with Bookshelf after her debut novel release, Verissmo said “I feel good about what I am working on but I am also very superstitious. I have a novel in progress and a two-book deal in the works. I also have a collection of poems.”
This year, Verissimo released her debut novel titled ‘A Small Silence,’ which tells the story of Prof, an activist and retired academic who shuts himself away from the world after spending 10 years in prison. Before now Verissimo was known as a poet with two collections of poetry to her name, ‘I Am Memory’ (2008) and ‘The Birth of Illusion (2015). Some of her poems have also been translated into several languages across the world, including Macedonian, Italian, Norwegian, French, Japanese, and Chinese.
The Society of Authors is a United Kingdom union for all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators. It describes itself as “11,000 strong, fighting for a nicer industry since 1884.”
