Meshack Asare

In October 2014 Meshack Asare won the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature, the first African to receive it. The judges honoured his whole body of work, with The Brassman's Secret as his representative book.

Background

He was born on 18 September 1945 at Nyankumasi, the second of six children of Agatha Adoma Afram, a trader, and Joseph K. Asare, an accountant. He studied fine art at the College of Art in Kumasi and taught in Ghana from 1967 to 1979, writing and illustrating his own books. He later took an MA in social anthropology at SOAS in London and has lived in London and in Degenfeld, Germany.

Books

Tawia Goes to Sea won the Ghana National Book Award and a UNESCO citation as best picture book from Africa. After a ten-year gap he returned with The Brassman's Secret (1981), which won the 1982 Noma Award. Cat in Search of a Friend (1984) won the Austrian national prize, and Sosu's Call (1997) won UNESCO's 1999 prize for children's literature in the service of tolerance. His other books include Chipo and the Bird on the Hill, Halima, The Magic Goat, Nana's Son and Noma's Sand.