Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento has won the 2025 CLMP’s Firecracker Award for Fiction.  Obligations to the Wounded, winner of the 2024 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in October, 2024.

From the Judges:

“Seldom does fiction so expertly capture the complications of queerness, family, dislocation, and culture. Obligations to the Wounded is a triumphant collection of unforgettable tales whose characters are as varied in identity as they are in experienced circumstances. With wit and cunning, the protagonists navigate the ever-present systems of oppression that encircle them and their relationships. Mubanga Kalimamukwento has written a stunning work of compassionate art worthy of our attention and emotions.”

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is the author of Obligations to the Wounded: Stories (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024). Kalimamukwento’s other books include The Shipikisha Club: A Novel (forthcoming from Dzanc Books, 2026), Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies: Poems (Wayfarer Books, 2025), unmarked graves (Tusculum University Press, 2022), and The Mourning Bird (Jacana, 2019). Her creative work has also appeared in adda, Aster(ix), Isele Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, on Netflix, and elsewhere. Kalimamukwento founded Ubwali Literary Magazine, co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop, and serves as a mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

The CLMP Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature are given annually to celebrate the books and magazines that make a significant contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide. Prizes are awarded in the categories of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Magazines/General Excellence, and Magazines/Best Debut. Each year, CLMP also awards the Lord Nose Award, given to a publisher or editor in recognition of a lifetime of work in literary publishing.

Each winner in the book categories will receive $2,000 ($1,000 for the press and $1,000 for the author or translator). Each winner in the magazine categories will receive $1,000. In addition, a national publicity campaign spotlights and promotes our winning titles each year. In partnership with the American Booksellers Association, promotional materials—including a press release and shelf talkers featuring the winning titles—are distributed to over 500 independent booksellers across the country. Winners are also promoted in CLMP’s newsletters, on our website, and through a dedicated social media campaign. The publishers of winning titles receive a free one-year membership to CLMP, and magazine winners receive a one-year CLMP Member subscription to Submittable.