Writing has been announced today (Wednesday 15
May) – and among the five stories chosen are an
unprecedented four Nigerian entries.
The Chair of judges, art historian and broadcaster,
Gus Casely-Hayford said, “The shortlist was selected
from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are
all outstanding African stories that were draw
n
from an extraordinary body of high quality
submissions.” Gus described the shortlist saying, “The five
contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that
we might feel we know of Africa – violence,
religion, corruption, family, community – but these
are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully
remade.
These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its
descendants captured at a time of burgeoning
change.” The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be
announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, on Monday 8 July. The 2013 shortlist comprises:
Elnathan John (Nigeria) ‘Bayan Layi’ from Per Contra, Issue 25 (USA, 2012) Read Bayan Layi
Tope Folarin (Nigeria) ‘Miracle’ from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012)
Read Miracle
Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) ‘Foreign Aid’ from Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23.3 (Philadelphia, 2012)
Read Foreign Aid
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) ‘The Whispering
Trees’ from The Whispering Trees, published by Parrésia Publishers (Lagos, 2012) Read The Whispering Tree
Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) ‘America’ from Granta, Issue 118 (London, 2012) Read America As always the stories will be available to read online
on our website www.caineprize.com and will be
published with the 2013 workshop stories in our
forthcoming anthology A Memory This Size in July
2013 by New Internationalist and seven co-
publishers in Africa.
Alongside Gus on the panel of judges this year are
award-winning Nigerian-born artist, Sokari
Douglas Camp; author, columnist and Lord
Northcliffe Emeritus Professor at UCL, John
Sutherland; Assistant Professor at Georgetown
University, Nathan Hensley and the winner of the Caine Prize in its inaugural year, Leila Aboulela.
Once again, the winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize
will be given the opportunity of taking up a
month’s residence at Georgetown University, as a
Writer-in-Residence at the Lannan Center for Poetics
and Social Practice.
The award will cover all travel and living expenses. The winner will also be invited
to take part in the Open Book Festival in Cape Town
in September 2013. Last year the Caine Prize was won by Nigerian
writer Rotimi Babatunde. He has subsequently co-
authored a play ‘Feast’ for the Young Vic and the
Royal Court theatres in London.
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