Pan Macmillan South Africa is delighted to announce that Angela Makholwa’s fourth novel, The Blessed Girl, published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury, has been shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize.

• Read the first chapter of The Blessed Girl by Angela Makholwa here!

The brainchild of award-winning comedian Helen Lederer, Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) launched in 2018 to celebrate and support female comedy writers and is open to novels published in the UK and Ireland.

The CWIP shortlist also includes Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie (Orion), Jeannette Winterson’s Frankissstein (Jonathan Cape) and Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare (Quercus), alongside Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen (John Murray), Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (Penguin Random House) and The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman (Headline).

Judges for this award are Marian Keyes, Lolly Adefope, Pauline McLynn, Joanna Scanlan, Paula Wilcox and last year’s prize winner, Laura Steven.

Keyes, who chaired the panel said:

‘I am absolutely delighted with our list. The range is glorious – everything from lighthearted commercial fiction to literary fiction – from established names to new talent – and it’s a demonstration of all the different ways in which women can be funny in print. It was a pleasure and very exciting to read all the submissions, and these are shortlists we are very proud of.’

Angela Makholwa said:

‘I’m honoured to have been shortlisted among such brilliant female comic writers. It’s affirming to finally see women’s writing being acknowledged for its diversity instead of having our writing being classified according to our gender. I hope this prize heralds a new era where we will see terms like ‘Chick Lit’ being replaced by more nuanced categorisations of our work.’

Makholwa debuted in 2007 with her bestselling novel Red Ink, followed by the entertaining escapades and sexual misadventures of modern women in The 30th Candle (2009). Her third novel, Black Widow Society (2013), marked a return to a thrilling, crime-ridden world, while The Blessed Girl (2017) looks at the dynamics of the modern day phenomenon of blessers from the vantage point of a blessee.

The Blessed Girl was released in the United Kingdom in June 2019. Interestingly, Makholwa rewrote the book’s ending for the UK market.

RESULT! The judges emerged from their humour cave (zoom meeting) to share these #CWIP 2020 Published Novel Shortlist literary laughter bombs with you. And since a lot of comedy involves taste – we got biscuits in. #CWIPprize #wittywomen #funnyfemalefiction pic.twitter.com/ZebwXkLMUR

— Comedy Women In Print (@CWIPprize) June 8, 2020

Categories International Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Angela Makholwa Awards News Pan Macmillan SA The Blessed Girl