Inua Ellams Wins Hay Festival Medal for Poetry 2020
Inua Ellams has won the Hay Festival Medal for Poetry for his debut, The Half-God of Rainfall. The award was presented by Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, in its first fully digital festival following the cancellation of this year's main event. Ellams received a medal crafted locally by silversmith Christopher Hamilton, which draws inspiration from the original Olympic medal given for poetry.
The Half-God of Rainfall is an epic story and a lyrical exploration of pride, power and female revenge, which follows Demi, a Nigerian basketball hero and an Olympic sportsman, the son of Zeus, whose tears cause rivers to overflow. It is a playful, epic contemporary retooling of Greek mythology, that has also been adapted for the stage and tells us what happens when the ambition and desires of mortals come face-to-face with the caprices of celestial beings.
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