PREVIOUS WINNERS

2002 winner: BINYAVANGA WAINAINA

Binyavanga Wainaina

On winning the Caine Prize, Binyavanga set up a literary magazine, Kwani?, to publish work by new Kenyan writers. One of its first stories, by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, won the 2003 Caine Prize and one of 2004’s shortlisted stories, by Parselelo Kantai, was also published in Kwani?. In 2003 the Kenya Publisher’s Association presented Binyavanga with an award in recognising his services to Kenyan literature.


Binyavanga has also completed a graduate course in creative writing at UEA. He has written for The East African, National Geographic, The Sunday Times (South Africa), The New York Times, The Guardian (UK) and Granta, who have commissioned him to write a book for them, and his first novel is now with the publishers. He is currently Director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, New York.

PREVIOUS SHORTLISTED WRITERS