The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has announced the Shortlist for the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.
Listed below are the 5 short stories of Impressive craft and Intelligent language
- Lucky by Doreen Baingana (Uganda) published in Ibua Journal, Online in Kampala, Uganda, 2021.
- The Street Sweep by Meron Hadero (Ethiopia) published in ZYZZYVA, Ethiopia, 2018.
- The Giver of Nicknames by Rémy Ngamije (Namibia) published in Lolwe, Kenya, 2020.
- This Little Light of Mine by Troy Onyango (Kenya) published in Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia, 2020.
- A Separation by Iryn Tushabe (Uganda) published in EXILE Quarterly, Canada 2018.
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to African writers of a short stories published in English. The prize was launched in the year 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally.
The focus on short stories reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition.
The stories written at Caine Prize workshops are published annually alongside the Prize’s shortlisted stories in the annual Caine Prize Anthology. This was by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in 8 African countries. These include Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), Gadsen Publishers (Zambia), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe) and Langaa (Cameroon).
It is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc, who was Chairman of the Africa 95 arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995. For nearly 25 years he was Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. After his death, friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of Ksh. 1,521,283.68 (£10,000) to be awarded annually in his memory.