Mo Yan's novel

The largest award for a Chinese novel, given annually by the Hong Kong Baptist University, went this year to International Writing Program (IWP) alum Mo Yan for Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Translated by Howard Goldblatt, it was published in March 2008 by Arcade Books.

In other award news, IWP alum Niyi Osundare has won this year’s Tchcaya U Tamsi Award for African Poetry. The prize, debuted in 1989, is named after Tchicaya U Tam’si, one of the Africa’s best poets. The prize is worth $10,000 -- the highest for the literary genre in Africa. Osundare was chosen as the 2008 laureate by the organizers of the award, The Assilah Forum Foundation.