JENNIFER NANSUBUGA MAKUMBI
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, a Ugandan novelist and short story writer, has a PhD from Lancaster University and is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize. Her first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. Her story "Let's Tell This Story Properly" won the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Jennifer lives in Manchester, UK with her husband, Damian, and her son, Jordan.
"Kintu is a masterpiece, an absolute gem, the great Ugandan novel that you didn’t know you were waiting for."—Aaron Bady, The New Inquiry
"An extraordinary novel about a family bound together by love, betrayal, and an age-old curse, told in gripping language that continually surprises. A literary triumph.”—Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze
"A work of bold imagination and clear talent."—Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, editor of Africa39
Titles by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
"A soaring and sublime epic. One of those great stories that was just waiting to be told."—Marlon James
Uganda’s history reimagined through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan, in a new anniversary edition.
First published in Kenya in 2014 to critical and popular acclaim, Kintu is a modern classic, a multilayered narrative that reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan. Divided into six sections, the novel begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom. Along the way, he unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In an ambitious tale of a clan and a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize
How far does one have to travel to find home elsewhere? The stories in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s collection attempt to measure that distance. Centered around the lives of Ugandans in Britain, Let’s Tell This Story Properly features characters both hyper-visible and unseen―they take on jobs at airport security, care for the elderly, and work in hospitals, while remaining excluded from white, British life. As they try to find their place, they drift from a home that feels further and further away. In an ambitious collection by the critically acclaimed author of Kintu, Let's Tell This Story Properly explores what happens to those who leave.