Omotoso's debut novel, Bom Boy, was published in 2011 by Modjaji Books in Cape Town. It won the 2012 South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author, was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize, and for the M-Net Literary Awards 2012.[1] Bom Boy was also runner-up for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature,[11] following which Omotoso took up a 2014 Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia[10] that was given up on her behalf by the 2013 prizewinner NoViolet Bulawayo.[12]