The Caine Prize for African Writing has announced its shortlist for 2017 contest. This year’s shortlist comes with admiration and wonder as a 22 year old is shortlisted for the prize – that is the youngest ever in the 18 year history of the prize. Five people have been shortlisted for this year award. And out of the five shortlisted authors, three are of Nigerian nationality, one is from South Africa and the last from Sudan.
The 2017 Caine Prize winner will be awarded £10,000 at a ceremony in Senate House Library, London – that’s mouth-watering for a literary prize ain’t it? Other shortlisted authors will be given £500 each at the same ceremony.
The judges who took their time to explore the pile of submissions and decide which story scaled through were Nii Ayikwei Parkes (the chair), Monica Arac de Nyeko, Prof Ricardo Ortiz, Ghazi Gheblawi and Dr Ranka Primorac. And Nii Parkes’s expression about the submissions revealed that a high influx of works dwelt on the themes of transition and migration – remember migration was the theme of Short Story Day Africa Prize 2016 (connect the dots). Nii Parkes also comforted with words of hope about dozens of good quality stories that were not shortlisted but would have made the list in other competitions.
The shortlisted athors for the Caine Prize for African Writing are:
Lesley Nneka Arimah
Lesley’s shortlisted short story Who Will Greet You at Home was published in The New Yorker. She is a Nigerian writer born in the UK. Her short story, Light won the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the African Region. She has published an anthology of short story titled What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky. This is the second time she will be shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.
Chikodili Emelumadu
Chikodili’s shortlisted short story Bush Baby was published in African Monsters. She is a Nigerian writer and blogger residing in London. She graduated from Nnamdi Azikwe University with a degree in English language and Literature. Chikodili was nominated for the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award.
Read Bush Baby
Bushra al-Fadil
Bushra’s shortlisted short story The Story of the Girl whose Birds Flew Away was published in The Book of Khartoum and translated by Max Shmookler. He is from Sudan and he has a PhD in Russian language and literature. He will be the oldest ever shortlisted for the Caine Prize, and his story will be the second ever Arabic translation that made Caine Prize shortlist.
Arinze Ifeakandu
Arinze’s shortlisted short story, God’s Children are Little Broken Things was published in A Public Space 24. While he was an English and Literature student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he edited for The Muse. He was shortlitsed for the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize. Now, this is a young man who is set to go places. He is the youngest ever shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
Magogodi’s shortlisted short story, The Virus was published in The Harvard Review 49. She is a South African writer whose work has appeared in Ploughsharesand An Ethical Compass. She has been awarded the Relin Prize for Fiction.
Read The Virus
