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Jury

Antoinette Fall Correa

Antoinette Fall Correa is the Director of BLD Éditions, a publishing house of the NGO Bibliothèque-Lecture-Développement (BLD), established to promote reading among children to better succeed at school. In 20 years since creation, BLD has published over 40 titles mainly illustrated books and children’s fiction. Fall Correa started her career in 1975 as lecturer and researcher at the École de Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes (EBAD), Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. She studied library science at Doua Université, Lyon (France) and MPhil in English studies at Loughborough University of Technology (UK) in 1983. A strong activist for African publishing for young readers, she has set up libraries in Centre Culturel Blaise Senghor, in Dakar, and in schools in Pikine and Guédiawaye in the outskirts of Dakar, Sénégal. She is former president and honorary co-president of the publisher’s body, Association sénégalaise des éditeurs (ASE).

Chaibou Dan-Inna

Chaibou Dan-Inna is a playwright, literary critic, and Senior Lecturer in Literature and Francophone Civilisation at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, Niger. He holds a doctorate from the University of Bordeaux 3 is an accredited Research Supervisor from University of Limoges, France. He has held high level administrative positions in academia and governance in Niger. He was head of Department of Modern Languages; Acting Dean Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities; Secretary General to the Ministry of Higher Education, Education and Social Development, Technical Adviser the National Assembly; Director to the office of the President of the High Council on Local Government Authorities and the Minister for Professional and Technical Education.

Chaibou Dan-Inna is the author of Bibliographie de la littérature nigérienne (with collaboration with Jean-Dominique Pénel); Anthologie bilingue de la poésie orale haoussa (with Ibrahim Abdoulsalam Niang); Yazi Dogo et l’art du théâtre populaire au Niger; L’Eloge dans les créations poétiques des griots haoussa d’une étude critique de Sarki ya hana sabkar bako de Yazi Dogo et d’un ouvrage sur Les Femmes africaines leaders des médias (with Vieux Savane). He is also the author of Une Vie de cent carats and several journal articles on African theatre, Hausa oral literature, and literature in Niger.

Sarah Odedina

Sarah Odedina has worked in publishing for more than two decades. As the Publishing Director of the children’s list of Bloomsbury Publishing, she oversaw the publication of the Harry Potter series as well as published many other best-selling and prize-winning novels and picture books. In 2011, Odedina founded the successful and award-winning Hot Key Books, and is now Editor-at-Large for Pushkin Press commissioning titles for the children’s and YA list. She is the co-founder of Scoop, a magazine for children. Odedina travels around the world giving talks and hosting workshops about publishing and children’s literature. She also teaches creative writing focusing on books for young readers. She recently cofounded Accord Literary Agency, an opportunity to bring African writers telling their stories of life on the continent to readers worldwide. Odedina holds an MA in African Literature (SOAS, UK) and BA in History and Literature (Hull, UK). She has been a judge on prizes including the prestigious Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature in Sharjah.

Binta Tini

Binta Tini is the founder and director of La Farandole des Livres, the first bookshop for children and young adult readers in Niamey which was created in 2007 from a passion for reading and the need to provide material for her own children. From the onset, the bookshop aimed to provide children stimulating and diverse material to boost reading. Her steadfastness, search for knowledge and work with publishers and actors in the book trade, and her involvement with the Caravane du Livre et de la Lecture, have been part of her activism in the cultural life of the country and region for more than a decade. Binta Tini is a member of the International Association of Francophone Booksellers (AILF) and founding member and treasurer of the Association des libraires du Niger (ALN).