Drue Heinz Literature Prize Presents: Mubanga Kalimamukwento

The Drue Heinz Prize is one of America’s major short story awards, with the winner receiving a $15,000 cash prize, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and support in the nation-wide promotion of their book. This program presents the current winner, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, and her winning book of stories, Obligations to the Wounded. Mubanga will be in conversation with Dr. Tahirah Walker, host of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s Creative Hive. 

In adventurous stories rooted in Zambian literary tradition, Obligations to the Wounded explores the expectations and burdens of womanhood in Zambia and for Zambian women living abroad. Mubanga’s collection converses with global social problems through the depiction of games, social media feuds, letters, and folklore to illustrate how girls and women manage religious expectations, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence, and racial discrimination. Although the characters inhabiting these pages are separated geographically and by life stage, their shared burdens, culture, and homeland inextricably link them together in struggle and triumph.

You can purchase your copy of Mubanga’s book, Obligations to the Wounded, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

This program is presented in partnership with University of Pittsburgh Press. 

About the Author:

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian attorney and writer. She is the winner of the 2022 Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Contest, the 2019 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, and the 2019 Kalemba Short Story Prize. Her first novel, The Mourning Bird, was listed among the top fifteen debut books of 2019 by Brittle Paper. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in adda, Aster(ix), Overland, the Red Rock Review, Menelique, on Netflix, and elsewhere. When she’s not writing, Mubanga serves as fiction editor for Doek! and as mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

About the Drue Heinz Literature Prize:

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize recognizes and supports writers of short fiction and makes their work available to readers around the world. The award is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals. Manuscripts are judged anonymously by nationally known writers. Past judges have included Robert Penn Warren, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Rick Moody, and Joan Didion. Winners receive a cash prize of $15,000, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and support in the nation-wide promotion of their book.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant Cucina Alfabeto is open for dinner from 5-10pm. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.