title: Efua Traoré
text: # Efua Traoré
  
  Efua Traoré is a Nigerian-German story writer. She won the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018 and was nominated for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2022.
  
  ## Life and career
  
  Traoré was born and raised in a small town in the south of Nigeria. She has also resided in France and Germany.
  
  She won the Africa regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her short story "True Happiness" in 2018. In 2019, her debut novel "Children of the Quicksands" won The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. The novel was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2022.
  
  She received the Munich Literaturreferat YA Literature grant 2019 for her German novel Die Hüter des Schlafes (The Guardians of Sleep).
  
  ## Books
  
  * Children of the Quicksands (2021) — a fantasy novel published by The Chicken House
  * The House of Shells (2022) — a children's novel published by The Chicken House
  
  ## Awards
  
  | Year | Title | Work | Result | Presented by |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | 2018 | Commonwealth Short Story Prize | True Happiness | Won | Commonwealth Foundation |
  | 2019 | The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition | Children of the Quicksands | Won | The Times / Chicken House |
  | 2022 | Waterstones Children's Book Prize | Children of the Quicksands | Nominated | Waterstones |
  