Two Nigerian authors, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Diana Evans, have been shortlisted for 2019 Women’s Prize for Literature.
This is the first time that two African authors will be shortlisted the same year.
Another Nigerian, Akwaeke Emezi, could not advance past the nomination stage.
The award was previously known as the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Braithwaite was nominated for her book My Sister, The Serial Killer while Evans was nominated for Ordinary People.
Other shortlisted authors include Pat Barker for The Silence of the Girls, Anna Burns for Milkman, Tayari Jones for An American Marriage and Madeline Miller for Circe.
Chimamanda Adichie won the award in 2007 for Half of a Yellow Sun.
The award comes with a £30,000 ($40,000) prize.
It was created in 1996 after the Bookers Prize of 1991 where none of the six shortlisted books was by a woman, despite 60 per cent of novels that year being published by female authors.
