The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual
literary award
A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author.
Organizations
Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...
for the best original
short story by an
African writer, whether in
Africa or elsewhere, published in the
English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of Sir
Michael Harris Caine,
former Chairman of
Booker Group plc. Because of the Caine Prize's connection to the Booker Prize, the award is sometimes called the "African Booker". The prize is known as the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. The Chair of the Board is
Ellah Wakatama
Ellah Wakatama, OBE, Hon. FRSL (born 16 September 1966), is Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, a senior Research Fellow at Manchester University and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She was the founding Publishing Directo ...
.
History
It was first awarded in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
to the
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
ese writer
Leila Aboulela
Leila Fuad Aboulela (Arabic:ليلى فؤاد ابوالعلا; born 1964) is a fiction writer, essayist, and playwright of Sudanese origin based in Aberdeen, Scotland. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and moved to Scotland in 1990 where she be ...
for her short story "The Museum", at the
Zimbabwe International Book Fair in
Harare. In its first year the Prize attracted entries from 20 African countries.
The winner is announced at a dinner in July, formerly held in
Oxford but most recently at
SOAS
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
,
University of London, to which the shortlisted candidates are all invited. This is part of a week of activities for the candidates, including readings, book signings and press opportunities.
Supporters
Among supporters of the prize are friends of Sir Michael Caine in the
UK, United States and
Africa, the
Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the
Zochonis Foundation Zochonis is a Greek surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Constantine Zochonis (1894–1951), British industrialist, chairman of PZ Cussons
* George Zochonis (1852–1929), Greek businessman, founder of PZ Cussons
* John Zochonis
...
, the
Marit & Hans Rausing Foundation, the
Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the
Headley Trust, the
Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, the
David Alliance Family Foundation
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, the
Cairns Charitable Trust
Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
, the
Botwinick-Wolfensohn Family Foundation, the
Sunrise Foundation
Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects.
Terminology
Al ...
, the
Von Clemm Charitable Trust
The term ''von'' () is used in German language surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ''of'' or ''from''.
Nobility directories like the ''Almanach de Go ...
, the
Royal Over-Seas League,
Sarova Hotels,
Bata Shoes
The Bata Corporation (known as Bata, and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, known as Baťa) is a multinational footwear, apparel and fashion accessories manufacturer and retailer of Moravian (Czech) origin, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzer ...
(
Kenya) Ltd and (
Zimbabwe) Ltd and
Kenya Airways.
The four African winners of the
Nobel Prize for Literature have supported the Caine Prize as patrons:
Wole Soyinka,
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...
,
Naguib Mahfouz and
J. M. Coetzee.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or k ...
, Sir Michael's widow, is President of the council and Jonathan Taylor is the chairman.
Critical reception
In 2011, African writer
Ikhide R. Ikheloa criticized the prize, suggesting that "The creation of a prize for 'African writing' may have created the unintended effect of breeding writers willing to stereotype Africa for glory. The mostly lazy, predictable stories that made the 2011 shortlist celebrate orthodoxy and mediocrity.... The problem now is that many writers are skewing their written perspectives to fit what they imagine will sell to the West and the judges of the Caine Prize...."
[Ikhide R. Ikheloa]
"The 2011 Caine Prize: How Not to Write About Africa"
''Next'' magazine, 20 May 2011. Archived at Ikhide.
List of winners
Notes
{{Reflist, 30em
References
*Rose-Innes, Henrietta. 2009. ''Ten Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing.'' New Internationalist Publications (Oxford, United Kingdom).
External links
Caine Prize for African Writing official website
African literary awards
English literary awards
Awards established in 2000
2000 establishments in England
Short story awards
English-language literary awards