The longlist has just been
announced for the inaugural Financial Times / Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Award, which aims to recognise extraordinary artistic talent in three
categories – fiction, film-making, and art across more than 100
emerging market nations.
The Emerging Voices Award is open
to passport holders of emerging nations in three categories:
1. Africa and the Middle East: works of fiction published in English.
2. Asia-Pacific: films in any
language with English subtitles.
3. Latin America and the
Caribbean: including, but not limited to, paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations,
photographs, prints and mixed media.
The aim is to reward those working
in each of the eligible art forms whose work shows outstanding talent and in
some way furthers understanding of their region.
The list of eligible emerging-market
countries was defined by the World Bank Atlas Method - i.e. those with a GNI per
capita of less than USD12,746. GNI per capita is gross national income divided by
mid-year population. Passport holders from the following Asia-Pacific countries
were eligible to enter the film award: American Samoa, Cambodia, China, Fiji,
India, Indonesia, Kiribati, Korea DPR, Laos, Malaysia, Marshall Islands,
Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and
Vietnam.
The longlisted films are:
• Endless Nameless by Mont
Tesprateep, Thailand
• Exclaim by Jian Mei, China
• Kush by Shubhashish Bhutiani,
India
• Scent of the Morning Sun by
Harin Paesongthai & Monkum Khukhuntin, Thailand
• Selfie Girls by Huỳnh Nguyeễn
Đăng Khoa, Vietnam
• The Concrete by Wei Liu, China
• The Last Mango before the
Monsoon by Payal Kapadia, India
• The Sea by Han Ting, China
• Trespassed by Yuhang Ho,
Malaysia
• Under the Sun by Qiu Yang,
China
The longlisted books - all from Africa
or the Middle East / Near West - are:
• Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett,
Chatto & Windus, Nigeria
• Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol by
Elias Khoury, Maclehose Press, Lebanon
• Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor,
Granta Books, Kenya
• It Might Get Loud by Ingrid
Winterbach, Human & Rousseau, South Africa
• Our Lady of the Nile by
Scholastique Mukasonga, Archipelago Books, Rwanda
• The Book of Memory by Petina
Gappah, Faber & Faber, Zimbabwe
• The Fishermen by Chigozie
Obioma, Pushkin Press, Nigeria
• The Meursault Investigation by
Kamel Daoud, Oneworld Publications, Algeria
• The Texture of Shadows by
Mandla Langa, Picador Africa, South Africa
• Women of Karantina by Nael
Eltoukhy, The American University in Cairo Press, Egypt
Finalists for each category will
be announced on 7 August and winners will be announced at a gala awards
ceremony in New York on 5 October.
It strikes me as deeply odd that
the Award should link artistic activity to geography. Why is recognition for fiction linked to Africa and the Middle East /
the Near West? Why is recognition for film linked to
the Asia-Pacific region? Why is recognition for the visual arts linked to Latin
America and the Caribbean?
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find anybody to
answer these questions – my best bet was to approach one of the fiction judges,
but he was unable to help and I couldn’t track down a likely contact through
the Oppenheimer website. If anyone can offer enlightenment, please leave a
comment.
