Who are the organizing committee members?
The HOHE Award will have an organizing team, which consists of prominent authors, publishers, academicians, non-profit leaders and journalists. The organizing team will have the overall mandate of overseeing the award procedures and leading the process in an independent way. The organizing team will select judges and juries who will be working to select the books for the award. There will be a three people panel of judges and juries for all the three categories. The identities of the judges will remain anonymous until the end of the award process, not to jeopardize the competitive selection process from preying on nepotistic usurpers. The organizing team will oversee the process and provide technical support and advice in the process. Meet the organizing team members for this year award.

DerejeGebre
DerejeGebre is serving as Assistant Professor in the department of Amharic language, literature and folklore at Addis Ababa University since 1983.

Zelalem Mehretu
ZelalemMehretuis a Poet and Coordinator of the HOHE literature award organizing team. Zelalem earned His MA degree in business and finance…

Kebour Ghenna
Kebour Ghenna is the Executive Director of the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI) since 2013. He oversees a unique organization representing..

Elsa Assefa
Elsa Assefa is a young journalist who has been working as a journalist in Addis Ababa mass media agency, Fana Broadcasting Corporation (radio Fana)…

Henock Yared
HenockYared has MA in Ethiopian Literature and Folklore from Addis Abeba University. He is working as a Senior Editor at the Amharic bi-weekly Reporter…

Yezna Worku
YeznaWorku is the first womanin short story writing in Ethiopian literature. She earns her MA degree in folklore and literature and she has got her BA degree …

Kalkidan Ambachew
KalkidanAmbachew is a general manager of Book Lights, which he established in 2005. Book lights published dozens of very popular Ethiopian writers…

Hailemelekot Mewael
HailemelekotMewael is the famous and respected writer and teacher for the last 33 years in Amharic language. He is known with his outstanding novels titled …

Hanisa Shikur
HanisaShikur is the president of Zema Bier Ethiopia women’s writers association since 2014. She earned her master’s degree in English literature and BA degree …

Firew Abebe
FirewAbebehas an LLB Degree in LAW from Alpha University College and Diploma in Print media journalism from AAU. Currently he is the editor in chief of the …

Seleshi Legesse
Seleshi is a seasoned adult education and literacy professional working on education programs for over two decades. He used to work as an executive director of …

Eyob Asfaw
EyobAsfaw is currently serving as community services expert and lecturer of Civics & Ethics at Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia. He earned MA degree in …

Ephrem Berhanu
EphremBerhanuhas over 10 years of experience working on issues of adolescent and youth sexual reproductive health rights, HIV/AIDS, family planning …
Who are the Judges?
HOHE Awards organizing committee composed of prominent authors, publishers, journalists, academicians, and non-for profit leaders will select a three panel of judges who will be reviewing the books in all the different categories. The names and profile of judges will remain anonymous.
Organizing committee members takes no part in the judges’ deliberations, except to verify a submission’s eligibility and supporting in coordinating their activities.
Who can nominate books?
Books to be submitted for HOHE Award will be open starting February 16, 2017 and the closing deadline will be March 23, 2018 5pm. Within this specific period of time the interested writers, publishers, libraries and any other interested individuals can nominate books online or in person.
In order to be eligible for the award, a book must be written by an Ethiopian citizen, basically for Ethiopian readers, and the period of time the book published should be between September 11, 2017 and September 10, 2018.
Applicants must submit a completed entry form to the organization from February 16, 2017 and the closing deadline will be March 23, 2018. They must then submit three copy of each entered book to the judges in the appropriate category with their application. There is no registration fee.
How are the finalists chosen?
Each panel reads all of the books submitted in their category. Then each panel will compile a list of 10 shortlists by May 16, 2018. Then there will be a vote to be collected from the public in the process of identifying the finalist 5 books. The public vote will have a 20% weight. Then the five finalist titles, to be announced in June 12, 2017. Then it will be open for public vote, which accounts 20%, and the remaining 80% vote will be given by judges, then the winner to be announced in the HOHE Awards ceremony to be organised on July 16, 2018. The panel of judges may arrive at these choices using whatever criteria they deem appropriate, as long as they do not conflict with the official award guidelines. The panel of judges will come up with their criteria to select books whom they think have good literary merit, if from the submitted books the judges didn’t find one that meet the minimum standard they will announce that this year the award will not be given.
One finalist from each of the three categories will be announced and the award will be presented at the special ceremony, which will be organised July 2018 at the National Theatre in Addis Ababa.
How are the winners chosen?
No one, not even the organizing committee members, learns who the winners are until the day of the Awards Ceremony, which takes place around second week of July 2018 at the National Theatre in Addis Ababa. The panel collectively decides who the winner in the different category will be. Often, this decision has been made ahead of time, but occasionally the panel works to come to a consensus until the very last minute. The panel chair announces the winner at the ceremony that evening. The winner and the vote earned from the judges and from the public will be announced to the public transparently in the event.
What does the award entail?
Live on the event, the winners in Children Books, Fiction, Poetry are announced the following evening at the HOHE Awards Ceremony, where each winner receives the prize.
After the award event?
Once an author has been a finalist or winner, HOHE Award will keep in touch with both the authors and publishers, promote the authors’ new books and upcoming readings, and invite them to future HOHE Literary Award-related events. All the contestant authors will be members of HOHE awards family, by way of notifying them for interactive engagements either among the authors also with the other programs of HOHE Awards.