Mark Twain Relative Presents Literary Prize

Mila Kimbuini grants an interview to a local TV station

Congratulations to Congolese journalist/writer Mila Kimbuini, who has won the first Mark Twain Prize for short fiction in 2010 for her story “L’AMOUR A TA PORTEE.”  The Mark Twain Prize awards $500 every month for the best short story written in French by a Congolese resident in the DRC.   Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Womack presented the Mark Twain Literary Prize for January during an event held at Public Affairs Officer Katya Thomas’s residence on February 4.   Womack, the U.S. defense attaché to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo, is also the great-great-grand nephew of Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain.  During his remarks, Womack noted that his participation in the event was “a family affair,” cited Samuel Clemens’s less than stellar military career but enormous contribution to American literary tradition, and expressed the hope that his own sons inherited some of their ancestor’s talent.   The monthly contests and prizes will continue until June 15.