about

Mubanga Kalimamukwento, 2023, Minnesota

Mubanga was born in Lusaka, Zambia. Her creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in adda, Aster(ix), Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, The Ex-Puritan, Menelique, on Netflix, and elsewhere, and her editorial work can be found or is forthcoming in Shenandoah, the Water~Stone Review, Doek! Literary Magazine and Safundi. She founded Ubwali Literary Magazine and co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop. When she’s not writing or editing, Mubanga serves as a Mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She is a PhD student in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota (Twin-Cities), where she is also an Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Scholar. Mubanga lives in Minnesota with her husband and their two children.


honors

AWARDS

Won

Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction ~ 2024

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize ~ 2024

The Minnesota Star Tribune's Top Ten Fiction Books from Minnesota (2024)

Brittle Paper's 100 Notable African Books of 2024


The Continent's Top 5 African Books of 2024 


The Boston Globe's Top 75 Books of 2024 

Debutiful's 10 Best Debut Short Story Collections of 2024

Debutiful's 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2024

Miles Morland Scholarship ~ 2023

Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writer-in-Residence Fellowship ~ 2023

Mercatus Center Don Lavoie Fellowship ~ 2023/2024

Shenandoah Fellowship for BIPOC Editors ~ 2023/2024

The Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Prize ~ 2022

1000 Voices Program, Every Woman Treaty ~ 2022

Jacobson Scholar (Hawkinson Fund for Peace and Justice) ~ 2021/2022

Deborah Keenan Poetry Scholarship (Hamline University) ~ 2021

Writer of Color Merit Scholarship (Hamline University) ~ 2020 - 2023

Kalemba Short Story Prize ~ 2019

Brittle Paper’s Top 15 Debut Books of 2019

Dinaane Debut Fiction Award ~ 2018/2019

Hubert H. Humphrey (Fulbright) Fellowship ~ 2018/2019

Young African Leaders Initiative ~ 2017


Finalist

The African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize ~ 2023

Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series in Fiction ~ 2022

Minnesota Author Project ~ 2022


Shortlist

Commonwealth Short Story Prize ~ 2022

Miles Morland Scholarship ~ 2022

Miles Morland Scholarship ~ 2021

Nobrow Short Story Prize ~ 2020

Bristol Short Story Prize ~ 2019


Semi-finalist

Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative ~ 2022