South African writer Sarah Isaacs who won the Island Prize for her fiction manuscript “Glass Tower.” The recently launched The Island Prize is a manuscript prize awarded to African writers for their debut fiction.

The prize, which was launched this year by indie publisher Holland House in partnership with Karavan Press and author Karen Jennings, aims to give unpublished African writers from the continent and its diaspora the opportunity to showcase their work to a wider audience. The prize organisers define the term “African writers” as authors born in or having citizenship of any African country. South African writer Isaac’s winning novel was chosen from 120 entries from all over the continent.