2006 Biographies

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Sefi Atta trained as an accountant in London and began to write while she was working in New York. She is a graduate of the creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and has won prizes from Zoetrope (3^rd prize, Short Fiction Contest, 2002), Red Hen Press (1^st prize, Short Story Award, 2003) and the BBC (2^nd prize, African Performance for plays, 2002 & 2004). In 2005, she was awarded PEN International’s David TK Wong Prize and her debut novel entitled Everything Good Will Come was published (by Arris Books, England, Interlink Publishing, USA, Double Storey Books, South Africa, Farafina Books, West Africa). She has just written her second novel, entitled Swallow.

She lives in Mississippi with her husband Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a medical doctor, and their daughter, Temi, and teaches at Mississippi State University.

Darrel Bristow-Bovey (South Africa), for A Joburg story, from African Compass – New Writing from Southern Africa 2005, Spearhead, 2005

Darrel Bristow-Bovey was born in Durban, South Africa, in the 1970s. He studied at the University of Cape Town under JM Coetzee and Andre P. Brink and worked for three years as editor of children’s fiction at a publishing house in Cape Town.

He moved to Johannesburg in 1997, where he became television columnist for The Sunday Independent, and a popular columnist in a range of publications and on the radio. He has won four Mondi Awards for Best South African Columnist, and has published four books: two books of humour, titled I Moved Your Cheese (2001) – which was translated into four languages - and The Naked Bachelor (2002); a collection of his columns titled But I Digress (2003), and his first book for younger readers, SuperZero (2006), which won a 2006 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature.

He currently writes for television, having been head writer on the first three series of the popular South African drama series, Hard Copy.

Muthoni Garland (Kenya), for Tracking the Scent of My Mother, from Seventh Street Alchemy: A Selection of Writings from the Caine Prize for African Writing 2004, Jacana Media, 2005

Born and bred in Kenya, Muthoni is married to an Englishman, and between them they have four children. She writes stories for children and adults. Her work has been published in Kwani?, Chimurenga (SA), Absinthe Review (USA), Memories of Sun (anthology for children published by HarperCollins - USA) and is forthcoming in The Reading Room (USA), and Sex and Death - an anthology edited by Mitzi Szereto (UK). She was highly commended in the 2002 BBC Commonwealth radio competition. Muthoni is working on her first novel.

Laila Lalami (Morocco), for The Fanatic, from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005

Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She earned her B.A. in English from Université Mohammed-V in Rabat, her M.A. from University College, London, and her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, The Boston Globe, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Arts grant and a Fulbright Fellowship for 2007. Her debut book of fiction, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, was published by Algonquin in October 2005. She is also the founder and editor of Moorishgirl.com, a blog about books and culture.

Mary Watson was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her collection of interlinking stories, Moss (Kwela 2004), explores themes of innocence, human cruelty, loss and belonging, distorted through the prism of apartheid Cape Town. Watson is currently lecturing Film Studies at the University of Cape Town where she received a Meritorious Publication award for Moss. She completed her Master’s degree in Creative Writing under the mentorship of Andre Brink in 2001, and studied Film and TV production at Bristol University in 2003. Her film, writing and research interests all arise from an obsession with stories and with alternative ways in which reality can be represented through art. She has contributed several short stories to published anthologies (including in translation in Afrikaans and German). She is currently working on her first novel and on a collaborative novel together with a group of other South African authors.

Caine Prize 2006 shortlist author's biographies