When We Were Birds by UEA writer Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has been shortlisted for The Kitschies’ Golden Tentacle Award. The Kitschies are annual awards for progressive, intelligent, and entertaining genre literature, and the Golden Tentacle category is for debut novels. She recently won the Overall and Fiction prizes in the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Ayanna (pictured) is from Trinidad and graduated from the University of the West Indies before gaining an MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at UEA in 2018. She is currently completing her PhD in Creative & Critical Writing. When We Were Birds was published by Hamish Hamilton last year and is currently also shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the Jhalak Prize. Ayanna was also announced last year as one of the two winners of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award. The winner of the Jhalak Prize will be announced on 25 May, the Authors’ Club on 24 May, and the Kitschies on 24 June.
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo shortlisted for The Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award
