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So I must say that this one went by without my notice and had it not been  The Bookaholic Blog I would not have heard it and talked about it. Thanks Bookaholic. I first blogged about the Prize here... Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry has won the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing for ' Stickfighting Days ' from Chimurenga vol 12/13. This Prize has been described as Africa's leading literary award. The Chair of Judges, The Economist's Literary Editor Fiammetta Rocco, announced Olufemi as the winner of the 10,000 pound prize at a dinner held on Monday July 5 at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  Fimmetta Rocco said "ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative, Olufemi Terry's 'Stickfighting Days' presents a heroid culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception. The execution of this story is so tight and the presentation so cinematic, it confirms Olufemi Terry as a talent with an enormous future" Olufemi was born in Sierra Leon of Af...

Olufemi Terry's  Stickfighting Days won the 11th Caine Prize for African Writing Award in 2010. It was later included in the anthology A Life in Full  anthology published in 2010. This story first appeared in Chimurenga vol. 12/13. The focus of the Caine Prize is ' on the short story, as reflecting the contemporary development of African story-telling tradition.' Here, one wonders if the 'African story-telling tradition' part deals with what publishers refer to as 'The African Story'. If so, the Caine Prize has succeeded. If the 'development' is also necessary, then it has failed totally; for now, the prize is almost seen as the ultimate search for the story that that can make readers puke and wonder if the characters are savages or humans. Consequently, writers summon all their creative power to write the most scatological stories that would define what an African story is. Whereas some writers search for the most rotten neighbourhoods in any...

I had always known that the announcement of the Caine Prize for African Writing would fall on my birthday. However, in joyful and thoughtful moods that birthdays always bestow upon its adult celebrants, I entirely forgot to follow the announcement on twitter. Thanks, however, to the internet I have been able to retrieve the announcement of the winner. Press Release Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo has won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for her short story entitled ‘Hitting Budapest’, from The Boston Review, Vol 35, no. 6 – Nov/Dec 2010. The Chair of Judges, award-winning author Hisham Matar, announced NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday 11 July) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Hisham Matar said: The language of ‘Hitting Budapest’ crackles. Here we encounter Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho, a gang reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. But these ...

A Life in Full and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories containing five of the 2010 shortlisted stories along with stories written at the Caine Prize writers' workshop which took place in Spring 2010. It includes the award winning story Stickfighting Days by Olufemi Terry . The five shortlisted stories are: Ken Barris: A Life of Worm  from 'New Writing from Africa 2009', published by Johnson and King James Books, Cape Town Lily Mabura: How Shall We Kill the Bishop?  from 'Wasafiri' No53, Spring 2008 Mamwali Serpell Muzungu  from 'The Best American Short Stories 2009', published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston MA Alex Smith Soulmates  from 'New Writing from Africa 2009' Olufemi Terry Stickfighting Days  from 'Chimurenga' vol 12/13, Cape Town 2008 Also read about this publication here  and make a purchase from amazon here

On April 26, 2010, the shortlist for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing was announced. The Caine Prize, widely known as the ‘African Booker’ and regarded as Africa’s leading literary award, is now in its eleventh year Chair Judge The Chair Judge for this year's award, The Economist literary editor Fiammetta Rocco, said: "Africa has much to be proud of in these five writers. Not only are their stories all confident, ambitious and skillfully written, each one boasts an added dimension – a voice, character or particular emotional connection – that makes it uniquely powerful." Joining Fiammetta on the judging panel this year are Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey, Professor Jon Cook of the University of East Anglia, and Georgetown University professor Samantha Pinto. Entries Selected from 115 entries from 13 African countries, the shortlist is once again a reflection of the Caine Prize’s pan-African reach.  Award The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be...

For other years and categories, see Review This list includes books and single stories read in 2011. Previously, this list was organised according to reviews so that a book read in the previous year and reviewed in the current year will be found here. However, this system has been reviewed to reflect only 2011 reads and nothing more and further categorised into months. Note that Single Stories are indicated by SS in brackets. A Single Story is a short story that was not read as part of an anthology or was not part of an anthology at the time of read. These SS are shortlisted short-stories like those for the Caine Prize or are from magazines and other websites. JANUARY: Return of the Water Spirit  by   Pepetela Distant view of a Minaret  by   Alifa Rifaat The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison  by   Jack Mapanje The Shadow of Imana  by Veronique Tadjo Neighbours: The Story of a Murder  by   Lilia Momple Jude the Obscure ...

This list excludes single stories. Single stories are uncollected short stories published in magazines, blogs, online newspapers, and other places. It is believed that such stories would be collected by author and later 'formally' published, hence their exclusion. -2000 to 2009- A Heart to Mend :  Myne Whitman African Agenda : Camynta Baezie Amazulu :  Walton Golightly As the Crow Flies :  Veronique Tadjo Atonement:  Ian McEwan Before I Forget:  Andre Brink The Best American Short Stories 2004 : Lorrie Moore (editor) Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters : Kojo Laing The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable :  Nassim Nicholas Taleb Bloodlines : Veronica Henry (Editor) The Book Thief : Markus Zusak The Book of Chameleons:   Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Book of Not:  Tsitsi Dangarembga Cloth Girl : Marilyn Heward Mills The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:   Mark Haddon Cut off my Tongue : Sitawa Nawal...

September wasn't a bad month for reading, though I encountered several hitches and have not read a word in three days. I set out to read four books and four single stories (Caine Prize Shortlist). Books projected to be read included: The Shadow Catcher , The Book of Not, A Grain of Wheat, and  Excursions in My Mind. Some of the projected books were read others were not: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I began this book in late September. This is the third in the Robert Langdon's series. It follows Robert Langdon as he fights his way to save his friend Peter Solomon whilst protecting the Mason's pyramid from destruction by Mal'akh. Similar to the others, this book is full of codes and cliffhangers. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This colonial literature traces events that occurred a few days to Kenya's independence day. It also predicts the disaffection that would later befall the real freedom fighters. Read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge ...

For other genres and categories, see Review There are many sub-genres of fiction. The list of books were amenable to the sub-genres provided below. Single stories are stories read online or downloaded and read in a pdf format. It could be part of a major collection such as The End of Skill  but was read as a stand alone. Novellas are complete stories (novels) that are 150 or less pages long. Children Stories (<12 years) Eno's Story by Ayodele Olofintuade Single Stories: Bombay's Republic by Rotimi Babatunde Butterfly Dreams by Beatrice Lamwaka Dayward by ZZ Packer Icebergs by Alistair Morgan In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata by Lauri Kubuitsile The End of Skill  by Mamle Kabu The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire by Rivka Galchen The Kid by Salvatore Scibona Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile by Mukoma wa Ngugi How Shall we Kill the Bishop...