The 2019 Caine Prize shortlist was released last week and just as last year, four of the five writers are women! This demonstrates that African women are cementing their place on the literary scene.
The Caine Prize is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker PLC and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years. It is awarded annually for African creative writing.
The Prize is awarded for a short story by an African writer published in English (indicative length 3,000 to 10,000 words). An African writer is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality.
This year’s shortlisted writers are:
- Cherrie Kandie (Kenya)- ‘Sew My Mouth’, published in ID Identity: New Short Fiction From Africa (2018).
- Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria)- ‘Skinned’, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 53 (2018).
- Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor (Nigeria)- ‘All Our Lives’, published in ID Identity: New Short Fiction From Africa (2018).
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Meron Hadero (Ethiopia)- ‘The Wall’, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 52 (2018).
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Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti (Cameroon)- ‘It Takes A Village Some Say’, published in The Baffler (2017).
Dr Peter Kimani, a Kenyan author, is the Chair of judges for this 20th edition of the Prize. Other judges are Olufemi Terry, Sierra Leone-born author and winner of the 2010 Caine Prize, Efi Atta, Nigerian author and playwright shortlisted for the 2006 Caine Prize; Scott Taylor, professor, and director of the African Studies Program at Georgetown University and Margie Orford, acclaimed author hailed as the “queen of South African crime-thriller writers”.
The award ceremony and dinner will be held in the Beveridge Hall at Senate House, SOAS, University of London on Monday 8 July 2019 . The winner takes home £10,000. Each shortlisted writer will also receive £500.
Be on the lookout for a special publication of the shortlisted stories by New Internationalist to mark the twentieth Caine Prize award dinner.
Congratulations to the nominees!
