Award announcement 2020

The 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is awarded to Irenosen Okojie

Photo by David Kwaw Mensah

London, 27 July 2020 – Nigerian-British writer Irenosen Okojie has been awarded the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story ‘Grace Jones’, from Nudibranch, published by Dialogue Books (2019).

The Chair of the AKO Caine Prize judging panel, director of The Africa Centre, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, announced the winner of the £10,000 prize in a film released on Monday 27 July.

This year in light of the coronavirus pandemic and continuing government restrictions, the AKO Caine Prize commissioned British-Nigerian filmmaker Joseph A. Adesunloye to direct and produce a documentary film to celebrate the shortlist and announce the winner.

‘Grace Jones’ tells the story of Sidra, a woman whose life is consumed with guilt. In a devastating tragedy, thirteen-year-old Sidra loses her entire family to a fire that destroys their flat. Years later, Sidra finds herself working as an impersonator of the famous Jamaican singer, model and actress Grace Jones. In this heart-wrenching account of loss, fractured identity and bereavement, Okojie deftly layers the psychological trauma of the daily experience of a Black woman in contemporary British society and of the specific tragedy that befalls Sidra.

Announcing the award, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp said: “This year’s winner of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a radical story that plays with logic, time and place; it defies convention, as it unfolds a narrative that is multi-layered and multi-dimensional. It is risky, dazzling, imaginative and bold; it is intense and full of stunning prose; it’s also a story that reflects African consciousness in the way it so seamlessly shifts dimensions, and it’s a story that demonstrates extraordinary imagination. Most of all, it is world-class fiction from an African writer.

“At the heart of this story is its main protagonist, a young woman from Martinique living in London, who is moonlighting as a celebrity impersonator; her journey moves exquisitely and seamlessly between the exploration of the universal experiences of unspeakable suffering, pleasure and escape, and the particular experience of being Black and African in a global city such as London.

“In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has prompted deeply powerful questions about race, justice and equality in the world today - this story offers a salient exploration of what it can mean to embody and perform Blackness in the world. This is a story of tremendously delicate power and beauty, and one in which we recognise the tradition of African storytelling and imagination at its finest.”

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British writer. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian, the BBC and the Huffington Post amongst other publications. Her short stories have appeared internationally in publications including Salt's Best British Short Stories 2017, Kwani? and The Year's Best Weird Fiction. She was named at the London Short Story Festival by Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri OBE as a dynamic writing talent to watch and featured in the Evening Standard Magazine as one of London’s exciting new authors. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular, published by Jacaranda Books was shortlisted for the Edgehill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her collection of stories Nudibranch which includes her AKO Caine Prize winning ‘Grace Jones’ is published by Dialogue Books.

‘Grace Jones’ is available to read now on the AKO Caine Prize website.

Joining Irenosen on this year’s shortlist were:

• Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) for ‘How to Marry An African President’ published in adda: Commonwealth Stories (2019). Available to read here.

• Chikodili Emelumadu (Nigeria & UK) for ‘What to do When Your Child Brings Home a Mami Wata’ published in The Shadow Booth: Vol.2 (2018). Available to read here.

• Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for ‘Fisherman's Stew’, published in The Sewanee Review (2019). Available to read here.

• Rémy Ngamije (Rwanda & Namibia) for ‘The Neighbourhood Watch’, published in The Johannesburg Review of Books (2019). Available to read here.

Each AKO Caine Prize shortlisted writer receives £500.

Alongside Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE on the 2020 judging panel were Audrey Brown, a South African broadcast journalist, and one of the leading voices for the BBC World Service, presenting the flagship daily news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. Gabriel Gbadamosi, an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. His London novel Vauxhall (2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair. Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw, an Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor, podcaster, publisher and policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands, and James Murua, a Kenya-based blogger, journalist, podcaster, and editor who has written for a variety of media outlets in a career spanning print, web and TV.

An anthology containing the five 2020 AKO Caine Prize shortlisted stories will be published in September 2020 by The New Internationalist. 

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation, whose primary focus is the making of grants to projects which promote the arts and improve education.

The 27 countries represented in this year’s eligible entries are: Angola/Cabinda; Botswana; Cameroon; Cote D'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Libya; Malawi; Mauritius; Morocco; Nigeria; Namibia; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Tanzania; The Gambia; Uganda; Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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. Works translated into English from other languages are not excluded, provided they have been published in translation, and should such a work win, a proportion of the prize would be awarded to the translator.                                                      

Ellah Wakatama OBE is the Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.

Previous winners are Sudanese Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila  (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003),  Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African  Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean  Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011),  Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan  Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African  Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018) and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).

The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at AKO Caine Prize workshops, and is published by: New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE  (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea  Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti,  Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers  (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon.

The AKO Caine Prize 2020 is principally supported by the AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.

For more information:
Lucy Colomb
lucy@raittorr.co.uk

+44(0)78 58 68 78 39

Shortlist for 2020 AKO Caine Prize Announced

Shortlist for 2020 AKO Caine Prize showcases huge diversity in the writing of African lives

The 2020 AKO Caine Prize shortlisted stories are written in humorous, tragic and satirical tones

London, 19 May 2020 – The shortlist for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced, featuring five stories that “speak eloquently to the human condition” through a diverse array of themes and genres. This year’s shortlist was determined virtually by the judging panel.

The shortlisted authors for this year’s Prize are from Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The Chair of judges, Director of The Africa Centre, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, said: “We were energised by the enormous breadth and diversity of the stories we were presented with – all of which collectively did much to challenge the notion of the African and diaspora experience, and its portrayal in fiction, as being one homogeneous whole.

“These brilliant and surprising stories are beautifully crafted, yet they are all completely different from one another. From satire and biting humour, to fiction based on non-fiction, with themes spanning political shenanigans, outcast communities, superstition and social status, loss, and enduring love. Each of these shortlisted stories speak eloquently to the human condition, and to what it is to be an African, or person of African descent, at the start of the second decade of the 21st century.

“Together, this year’s shortlisted stories signal that African literature is in robust health, and, as demonstrated by the titles alone, never predictable.”

The shortlisted writers for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize are:

·       Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) for ‘How to Marry An African President’ published in adda: Commonwealth Stories (2019)

o   Read ‘How to Marry An African President’

·       Chikodili Emelumadu (Nigeria & UK) for ‘What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata’ published in The Shadow Booth: Vol.2 (2018)

o   Read ‘What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata’

·       Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for ‘Fisherman's Stew’, published in The Sewanee Review (2019)

• Read ‘Fisherman’s Stew’

·       Rémy Ngamije (Rwanda & Namibia) for ‘The Neighbourhood Watch’, published in The Johannesburg Review of Books (2019)

o   Read ‘The Neighbourhood Watch’

·     Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria & UK) for ‘Grace Jones’ from "Nudibranch", published by Hachette (2019)

• Read ‘Grace Jones’

Joining Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp on the 2020 judging panel are Audrey Brown, South African broadcast journalist; Gabriel Gbadamosi, Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright; Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw, Ethiopian-born nonfiction editor and policy adviser at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands, and James Murua, Kenyan based journalist, blogger, podcaster and editor.

The AKO Caine Prize has had to postpone this year’s annual award ceremony, and hopes to announce the winner of this year’s £10,000 prize in the autumn. The safety of our authors, staff, guests and partners remains a priority, and the Prize will continue to closely monitor the latest government guidelines. Each shortlisted writer will also receive £500.

The shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology, and also through co-publishers in 16 African countries who receive a print-ready PDF free of charge.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation, whose primary focus is the making of grants to projects which promote the arts and improve education.

The 27 countries represented in this year’s eligible entries are: Angola/Cabinda; Botswana; Cameroon; Cote D'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Libya; Malawi; Mauritius; Morocco; Nigeria; Namibia; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Tanzania; The Gambia; Uganda; Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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. Works translated into English from other languages are not excluded, provided they have been published in translation, and should such a work win, a proportion of the prize would be awarded to the translator.                                                      

The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of the AKO Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama OBE is the Chair and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.

Previous winners are Sudanese Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila  (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003),  Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African  Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean  Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011),  Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan  Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African  Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018) and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).

The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at the AKO Caine Prize workshop, and is published each year by: New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE  (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea  Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti,  Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers  (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon.

The AKO Caine Prize is principally supported by the AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.

For more information:
Lucy Colomb
lucy@raittorr.co.uk

+44(0)78 58 68 78 39

The AKO Caine Prize receives 222 submissions

The third decade of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing kicks off with a record 222 submissions from 28 countries across the Continent

Wednesday, 4 March 2020 – Now entering its third decade, the AKO Caine Prize has received a record total of 222 submissions – the largest number of entries since its inception. The 2020 entries come from 28 African countries, including Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius and Rwanda. A full list of countries represented can be found in the Notes to Editors.

The judges will select only five stories to constitute this year’s shortlist when they meet in London at the end of April. The judging panel will be chaired by Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, a British-Nigerian, and renowned figure of the arts in the United Kingdom, based in London. He will be joined by Kenyan blogger James Murua; Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright Gabriel Gbadamosi; South African broadcaster Audrey Brown and Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor and podcaster Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw, currently a policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands.  

The shortlisted stories for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize will be announced in May.

Each writer shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize will be awarded £500, and the winner will receive a £10,000 prize. If a work in translation is chosen as the winning story, the prize will be shared between the author and the translator.

Commenting on this year’s submissions, Chair of the Prize Ellah Wakatama OBE said: “It’s wonderful to see the Prize receive a burgeoning number of submissions. Authors across African countries are producing remarkable literary works, and we have a ringside seat to read all 222 of them. To bring in our twenty-first year with an abundance of stories from so many countries is extraordinary. It will be hard for our judges to boil it down to just five shortlisted works for this year’s award so I wish them good luck, and I can’t wait to read their selection.”

The five shortlisted stories will be compiled into the official AKO Caine Prize anthology and published by New Internationalist in the UK, Interlink Publishing in the USA, and a variety of international publishers around the world.

In 2020, the anthology will be published by the New Internationalist.
                                                               

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation, whose primary focus is the making of grants to projects which promote the arts and improve education.

The 28 countries represented in this year’s eligible entries are: Angola/Cabinda; Botswana; Cameroon; Cote D'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Libya; Malawi; Mauritius; Morocco; Nigeria; Namibia; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; South Sudan; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Tanzania; The Gambia; Uganda; Zambia and Zimbabwe

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. Works translated into English from other languages are not excluded, provided they have been published in translation, and should such a work win, a proportion of the prize would be awarded to the translator.

The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of the AKO Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama OBE is the Chair and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.

Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila  (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003),  Zimbabwean Brian  Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary  Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African  Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean  Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011),  Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan  Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African  Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018) and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).

The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at the AKO Caine Prize workshop, and is published each year by: New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE  (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea  Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti,  Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers  (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon.
The AKO Caine Prize is principally supported by the AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.
 
 
For more information

Pegah Souri
pegah@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7719

The AKO Caine Prize announces its 2020 judges

The AKO Caine Prize announces its 2020 judges

Monday, 3 February 2020 – The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has announced its panel of judges for 2020. Having marked its 20th anniversary last year, the AKO Caine Prize is looking forward to a new decade of exploring and recognising exceptional African literature.
 
This year’s Chair of Judges is director of the Africa Centre, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE. A prominent figure in the cultural sphere, Kenneth was made a CBE in recognition of his services to dance, which included working with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. As a passionate champion of the arts, he brings a welcome diversity of experience to the judging panel.
 
Kenneth will be joined on the panel by Audrey Brown, a South African journalist with BBC Africa in London; Gabriel Gbadamosi, a poet, playwright and essayist who won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize in the Best International Novel category for Vauxhall, published in 2013; Kenyan journalist James Murua, whose prominent blog publishes news and reviews from the African literary scene; and Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw, a Dutch-Ethiopian editor currently working at the Council for Culture, where she advises the Dutch Parliament on arts, culture and media.

Full biographies of each judge can be found on our website here. 

Commenting on the 2020 panel, Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of the AKO Caine Prize, said: “We are honoured to announce such remarkable cultural figures as our 2020 AKO Caine Prize judges. I’m sure that, with his wealth of experience across art forms, Kenneth Tharp will make an excellent Chair, and I wish all the judges great success in deciding our 2020 shortlist and, ultimately, in judicating this year’s winning story.”
 
The judging panel will meet to determine which entries will make the shortlist, with an announcement on their selection to be published in May 2020. 
 

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:  
 
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation, whose primary focus is the making of grants to projects which promote the arts and improve education.
 
Increasingly, the Foundation aims to help start up, and be the catalyst for, new charitable projects which otherwise could not have been realised. The Foundation also takes pride in having a very lean structure so that it can make fast decisions, proving an invaluable ally for the Prize.
 
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. Works translated into English from other languages are not excluded, provided they have been published in translation, and should such a work win, a proportion of the prize would be awarded to the translator.
 
The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and JM Coetzee, are Patrons of the Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama OBE is the Chair and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.
 
Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila  (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003),  Zimbabwean Brian  Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary  Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African  Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean  Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011),  Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan  Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African  Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018) and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).
 
The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at the AKO Caine Prize workshop, and is published each year by: New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE  (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea  Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti,  Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers  (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon. The 2018 anthology was titled Redemption Song and Other Stories.
 
The AKO Caine Prize is principally supported by The AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold.  Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.
 

For more information

Pegah Souri
pegah@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7719

The AKO Foundation offers major support to The Caine Prize for African Writing

The AKO Foundation offers major support to The Caine Prize for African Writing

AKO Foundation to provide core costs of the Caine Prize for next three years

London, Wednesday 29 January 2020 – The Caine Prize for African Writing is delighted to announce a new partnership with the AKO Foundation, a London based charity supporting projects which promote the arts, improve education or mitigate climate problems. As part of the agreement, the Prize becomes the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, and will receive a grant to cover its core costs.  

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is regarded as the most important and influential literary prize for African writing. Aiming to bring the work of African writers to an international audience, the Prize recognises, promotes and celebrates the exceptional literary works of the continent. The Foundation’s funding will enable the Prize to continue supporting writers in Africa through literary workshops, the publication of the annual anthology, and the annual award.

Commenting upon his support for the Prize, Nicolai Tangen, Founder of the AKO Foundation, said: “We are delighted and proud to sponsor the AKO Caine Prize, and look forward to seeing the literary landscape flourish and prosper with further excellent contributions from African authors. In supporting the Prize we are making clear our desire to encourage and celebrate the exceptional work of African writers.”

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has expressed its gratitude to the Foundation for this “invaluable support”, and to all other dedicated supporters of the Prize for their commitment to celebrating outstanding African writing.

“Counting the AKO Foundation as our ally not only promises more stability for the Prize, but allows us to plan for the future with additional confidence and ambition,” said the AKO Caine Prize Chair Ellah Wakatama OBE. “We are so grateful to the Foundation, as well as to all our existing donors, who have provided generous and consistent support throughout the years, and we look forward to championing literature from Africa and her diaspora in this new chapter for the Prize.”

ENDS

 

Notes to Editors:

The AKO Foundation (the ‘Foundation’) was founded by Nicolai Tangen and registered as a United Kingdom charity in April 2013. Its primary focus is the making of grants to projects which improve education, promote the arts or mitigate climate problems.  Increasingly, the AKO Foundation aims to help start up, and be the catalyst for, new charitable projects which otherwise could not have been realised. As of January 2020, the Foundation has been funded with a total income of more than £300 million. 
 
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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. Its main sponsor is the AKO Foundation.
 
The AKO Caine 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.
 
The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of the AKO Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama OBE is the Chair, and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.
 
Previous winners are Sudanese Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila  (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003),  Zimbabwean Brian  Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary  Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African  Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean  Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011),  Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan  Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African  Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018) and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).
 
The AKO Caine Prize anthology comprises the five shortlisted stories alongside stories written at the Prize’s workshop, and is published each year by: New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE  (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea  Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti,  Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers  (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon. The 2018 anthology was titled Redemption Song and Other Stories.
 
The AKO Caine Prize is supported by The AKO Foundation, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold.  Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam  Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.

For more information

Pegah Souri
pegah@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7719

Caine Prize response to allegations against ‘All Our Lives’

The Caine Prize for African Writing has been made aware of an allegation levelled against this year’s shortlisted story ‘All Our Lives’ by Tochukwu Okafor. The Trustees of the Caine Prize referred this matter to the 2019 Judges for adjudication, and on comparison of ‘All Our Lives’ and Laleh Khadivi’s ‘Wanderlust’, published in 2014, determined that there had been a failure to attribute an original source.

Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Chair of the Prize, has corresponded with both authors and as a result of these communications, the Prize regrets to announce the removal of Tochukwu Okafor’s story from the 2019 shortlist.

The Caine Prize is committed to holding writers to the very highest of ethical standards. It is accepted that in this particular case, the author’s failure to attribute a core source was born of inexperience and lack of familiarity with literary protocols.

The Prize will review our guidelines for 2020 submissions, and instil preventative measures to guard against such incidents. We hope that this process doesn’t detract from this year’s truly excellent winning story. 

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Caine Prize, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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.

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.

The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of The Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey OBE is the Chair, and Adam Freudenheim is the Deputy Chairperson.

Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011), Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese Bushra al-Fadil (2017), Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018); and Nigerian Lesley Nneka Arimah (2019).

The five shortlisted stories are published annually by New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda). Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon.

The Caine Prize is principally supported by The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include, The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.

For more information

James Killin
james@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7719

Follow us on Twitter (@CainePrize), Facebook, Instagram, and visit our website: www.caineprize.com

Lesley Nneka Arimah wins 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing

London, 8 July 2019 – Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for her short story ‘Skinned’, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (Issue 53).

The Chair of the Caine Prize judging panel, internationally acclaimed Kenyan author and poet Dr Peter Kimani, announced Lesley as the winner of the £10,000 prize at an award dinner on Monday 8 July. The ceremony was held for the third time at Senate House, University of London, in partnership with SOAS and the Centre for African Studies.

‘Skinned’ envisions a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed. It tells the story of Ejem, a young woman uncovered at the age of fifteen yet ‘unclaimed’ in adulthood, and her attempts to negotiate a rigidly stratified society following the breakdown of a protective friendship with the married Chidinma. With a wit, prescience, and a wicked imagination, ‘Skinned’ is a bold and unsettling tale of bodily autonomy and womanhood, and the fault lines along which solidarities are formed and broken.

Announcing the award, Dr Peter Kimani said: “The winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing is a unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals. Lesley Nneka Arimah’s Skinned defamiliarizes the familiar to topple social hierarchies, challenge traditions and envision new possibilities for women of the world. Using a sprightly diction, she invents a dystopian universe inhabited by unforgettable characters where friendship is tested, innocence is lost, and readers gain a new understanding of life.”

Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and wherever else her father was stationed for work. She was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 and her debut collection What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky won the 2017 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and was selected for the New York Times/PBS book club among other honours. Lesley is a 2019 United States Artists Fellow in Writing. She lives in Las Vegas

‘Skinned’ is available to read now on the Caine Prize website.

Joining Lesley on this year’s shortlist were:

• Meron Hadero (Ethiopia) for ‘The Wall’, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 52 (2018).

  • Read ‘The Wall’
    

• Cherrie Kandie (Kenya) for ‘Sew My Mouth’, published in ID Identity: New Short Fiction From Africa (2018).

  • Read ‘Sew My Mouth’
    

• Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti (Cameroon) for ‘It Takes A Village Some Say’, published in The Baffler (2017).

  • Read ‘It Takes A Village Some Say’
    

• Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor (Nigeria) for ‘All Our Lives’, published in ID Identity: New Short Fiction From Africa (2018).

  • Read ‘All Our Lives’

Each Caine Prize shortlisted writer receives £500.

Alongside Dr Peter Kimani on the 2019 judging panel were Sefi Atta, Nigerian author and playwright shortlisted for the 2006 Caine Prize; Margie Orford, acclaimed author hailed as the “queen of South African crime-thriller writers”; Scott Taylor, professor, and director of the African Studies Program at Georgetown University; and Olufemi Terry, Sierra Leone-born author and winner of the 2010 Caine Prize.

A special anniversary anthology containing all winning stories throughout the history of the Caine Prize will be published later this year.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Caine Prize, awarded annually for African creative writing, 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.

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.

The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of The Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey OBE is the Chair, Adam Freudenheim is the Deputy Chairperson and Dele Fatunla is the Administrator.

Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011), Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), South African Lidudumalingani (2016), Sudanese writer Bushra al-Fadil (2017), and Kenyan Makena Onjerika (2018).

Each year the five shortlisted stories, alongside stories written at the Caine Prize workshop, are published by New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda).  Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon. The 2018 anthology was titled Redemption Song and Other Stories.

The Caine Prize is principally supported by The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, and John and Judy Niepold.  Other funders and partners include The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.

For more information

James Killin
020 7922 7719
james@raittorr.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @CainePrize, and visit our website: www.caineprize.com