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Twenty-four outstanding stories have been selected by an international judging panel from 5182 entries from 48 Commonwealth countries. The writers come from 14 countries including, for the first time, Samoa and Ghana. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English from the Commonwealth. As well as being open to entries translated into English from any language, it is the only literary prize in the world where entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, and Tamil. Again, in 2018, we’re delighted that a translated story has reached the shortlist. The inclusion of other languages in the Prize speaks to Commonwealth Writers’ recognition of the need for linguistic diversity to promote the richness of varied literary traditions and lesser-heard narratives. The 24 entries have earned their place on the shortlist - a rich collection of stori es showcasing the skill and talent of the write...

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize announced its 2014 shortlist on April 30 for the different geographic areas: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and Pacific. Africa Ikanre by   Adelehin Ijasan (Nigeria) All Them Savages  by   Michelle Sacks (South Africa) Let’s Tell This Story Properly by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda) Asia Grandmother by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Singapore) A Day in the Death  by Sara Adam Ang (Singapore) Canada and Europe The Night of Broken Glass by Jack Wang (Canada) On The Other Side by Idrissa Simmonds (Canada) Agnes Agnes Agnes by Luiza Sauma (United Kingdom) Household Gods by Tracy Fells (United Kingdom) Killing Time  by Lucy Caldwell (United Kingdom) Caribbean Cowboy by Helen Klonaris (Bahamas) Sending for Chantal by Maggie Harris (Guyana) Miss Annie Cooks Fish by Charmaine Rousseau (Trinidad and Tobago) Pacific The Dog and the Sea  b...

Exactly a week ago, the Caine Prize announced its 2014 shortlist. This year's shortlist was announced by the Nobel Prize winner and Patron of the Caine Prize Wole Soyinka, as part of the opening ceremonies for the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 celebration in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The Shortlist comprises: Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) " Phosphorescence " in Cabin Fever ( Umuzi , Cape Town. 2011) Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) " Chicken " in Feast, Famine and Potluck ( Short Story Day Africa , South Africa. 2013) Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) " The Intervention " in Open Road Review , issue 7, New Delhi. 2013 Billy Kahora (Kenya) " The Gorilla's Apprentice " in Granta (London. 2010) Okwiri Oduor (Kenya) " My Father's Head " in Feast, Famine and Potluck ( Short Story Day Africa , South Africa. 2013) Tendai Huchu is the author of The Hairdresser of Harare .  Billy Kahora's Urban Zoning  was nominated in 2012 Ca...

Accra, Ghana November 1, 2013: 180 stories were submitted to this year's Golden Baobab Prizes. Of these, 25 made it onto the longlist and 8 to the shortlist. The 8 shortlisted stories are: The Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books The Princess with a Golden Voice by Philip Begho (Nigeria) The Little Hippo by Liza Esterhuyse (South Africa) The Grandma Mimo's Breakfast by Carol Gachiengo (Kenya) The Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books Seven by Sabina Mutangadura (Zimbabwe) Rhino by Richard Street (South Africa) What's going on at 179 Jabulani Street? by Karen Hurt (South Africa) The Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers The Little Secret by Fego Martins Ahia (Nigeria) Pieces of Africa by Kanengo Rebecca Diallo (Tanzania) According to the Chair of Judges for the Picture Book Prize, Zetta Elliott, whose first book, Bird , won the Honor Award in Lee and Low Books' New Voices Contest,  I am very impressed with the range and originali...

Actually I am late in posting this as the Booker Prize winner will be announced  in two weeks time on October 15, 2013. It hovered on the peripheral of my mind but I never came around to posting it. As already known Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo made the list with her book We Need New Names . Here are the six-shortlisted books: Wee Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin Harvest by Jim Crace According to the Booker Prize site : The six books on the list could not be more diverse. There are entries from novelists from New Zealand, England, Canada and Zimbabwe - each with its own highly distinctive taste. They range in size from the 832 pages of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries  to the 104 page The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin. The times represented stretch from the biblical Middle East (Toibin) to contemporary Zimba...

The Kwani? Manuscript Project, a new one-off literary prize for unpublished fiction from African writers, is delighted to announce a shortlist  selected from a longlist of 30 . The seven shortlisted titles are: Ayobami Adebayo , Stay with Me (Nigeria)  Ayesha Harruna Attah , Saturday’s People (Ghana / US) Stanley Gazemba , Ghettoboy (Kenya) Toni Kan , The Carnivorous City (Nigeria)  Timothy Kiprop Kimutai , The Water Spirits (Kenya)  Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi , The Kintu Saga (Uganda / UK) Saah Millimono , One Day I Will Write About This War (Liberia) The shortlist has been selected, without the author’s name attached, by a high-profile panel of judges including Deputy Editor of Granta magazine Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, leading scholar of African literature Professor Simon Gikandi, Chairman of Kenyatta University’s Literature Department Dr. Mbugua wa Mungai, editor of Zimbabwe’s Weaver Press Irene Staunton and internationally renowned Nigeria...

This year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortilst, released on May 15, was dominated by Nigerians. This emphaises Nigeria's long-held and enviable position as the powerhouse of quality and prodigious Literature on the continent; perhaps only South Africa can 'compete'. Four of the five stories that made up this year's shortlist were by Nigerians. The fifth story is by a Sierra Leonean. Nigeria has produced such great writers as the Nobel Laureate, Akinwande Oluwole (Wole) Soyinka ; the Man Booker International Prize Winner, Chinua Achebe ; Elechi Amadi; John Pepper Clark; Ola Rotimi ; and others. One can also mention many of the new generation of writers such as Chuma Nwokolo ; the Booker Prize Winner, Ben Okri ; the Orange Prize Winner, Chimamanda Adichie ; and others. We can talk of Nigerian writers forever. According to the Chair of Judges, Gus Casely-Hayford, The Shortlist was selected from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are all outstanding ...

The Man Booker Prize shortlist for this year has been announced (today, September 11, 2012). The shortlisted books were selected from a longlist of 12 books . The following are books selected by the judges chaired by Sir Peter Stothard: Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists   (Myrmidon Books) Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber) Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies   (Fourth Estate) Alison Moore, The Light House   (Salt) Will Self, Umbrella   (Bloomsbury) Jeet Thayil, Nacropolis   (Faber & Faber) According to Peter Stothard After re-reading an extraordinary longlist of twelve, it was the pure power of prose that settled most debates. We loved the shock of language shown in so many different ways and were exhilarated by the vigour and vividly defined values in the six books that we chose - and in the visible confidence of the novel's place in forming our words and ideas. Trivias The shortlist includes two debut...

The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature led by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo has announced an initial shortlist of 10 books in the running for the 2012 literature prize. According to the Chair of Judges, Prof. Francis Abiola Irele, it took months of intensive scrutiny by the panel to produce the shortlist drawn from 214 entries from Nigerians at home and abroad; this happens to be the largest number received since the prize was inaugurated in 2004. The following are the shortlisted books: Ngozi Achebe Onaedo :  The Blacksmith's Daughter Ifeanyi Ajaegbo: Sarah House Jude Dibia: Blackbird Vincent Egbuson: Zhero Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: I do not Come to You by Chance Onuora Nzekwu: Troubled Dust Olusola Olugbesan: Only Canvas Lola Shoneyin : The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives E E Sule: Sterile Sky Chika Unigwe: On Black Sister's Street The Advisory Board announced that the final shortlist will be released soon. The Nigeria Prize for Literature r...

The Lumina Foundation has announced the shortlist of the Wole Soyinka Prize 2012 for Literature in Africa. The longlist of 15 books have been whittled down to 3, with the winner to be announced on September 8, 2012 at the Civic Center, Ozumba Mbadiwe in Nigeria. The shortlisted books are: The Unseen Leopard by Bridget Pitt (South Africa) Roses and Bullets by Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (Nigeria) Young Blood by Sifiso Mzobe Read more about the award here .

Love on Trial  is the last of the Caine Prize Short I am reviewing. The story was published in the For Honour and other stories anthology by the author. Love on Trial  extracts from a real incident that took place in Malawi. It is about the arrest and sentencing of two Malawian homosexuals to fourteen years in prison; an incident that got the whole world shouting and cutting aid to the country which led to their pardon.  In this story, Charles is a third year law school at the university. He has been stumbled upon by the village drunk, Mr Kanchingwe, when he was having an affair with his lover in a school lavatory. Charles was seen and had to face the villagers whilst his lover bolted not to be seen or heard of in the story again. Mr Kanchigwe has become something of a cult-hero for having stumbled upon the two and so, for a tot of the local gin, Kanchigwe will give some details of what he saw. For, the details more tots have to be provided for him and his growing...

The shortlist for the thirteenth Caine Prize for African Writing was released on May 1st, 2012. The shortlist was announced by the new vice-president of the prize Ben Okri. The Chair of judges, author and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Bernardine Evaristo MBE, has described the shortlist as 'truly diverse fiction from a truly diverse continent.' The 2012 shortlist comprises: Rotimi Babatunde (Nigeria): Bombay's Republic from Mirabilia Review Vol. 3.9 (Lagos, 2011) Billy Kahora (Kenya): Urban Zoning  from McSweeney's Vol. 37 (San Francisco, 2011) Stanley Kenani (Malawi): Love on Trial  from For honour and Other Stories published by eKhaya/Random House Struik (Cape Town, 2011) Melissa Tandiwe Myambo (Zimbabwe): La Salle de D é part from Patrick of the Spindle Vol. 4.2 (New Orleans, June, 2010) Constance Myburgh (South Africa): Hunter Emmanuel  from Jungle Jim Issue 6 (Cape Town, 2011) Selected from 122 entries from 14 African countries Bern...

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011 shortlist was announced on Tuesday September 6, 2011. From a longlist of 13 books comes a shortlist of 6. Jualian Barnes The Sense of Ending  (Jonathan Cape) Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie  (Canongate) Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta Books) Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues  (Serpent's Tail) Stephen Kelman Pigeon English  (Bloomsbury) A.D. Miller Snowdrops  (Atlantic Books) This list contains 2 first time novelists: Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller and two have had success with the prize in the past: Julian Barnes and Carol Birch. Four of the books are from independent publishers, two are Canadian writers and four are British. ImageNations interest is in Esi Edugyan who, though a Canadian, was born to Ghanaian emigrants. Then there is also the Ghanaian connection, in terms of the protagonist, in Kelman's Pigeon English. My friend Geosi has suggested that after reading all the reviews, he tips Esi to win...

I know this has been long in coming... The shortlist for the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing was been announced on Monday 9 May. The Caine Prize, widely known as the ‘African Booker’ and regarded as Africa’s leading literary award, is now in its twelfth year. The chair of judges, the award-winning Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, said  choosing a shortlist out of nearly 130 entries was not an easy task – one made more difficult and yet more enjoyable by the varied tastes of the judges – but we have arrived at a list of five stories that excel in quality and ambition. Together they represent a portrait of today’s African short story: its wit and intelligence, its concerns and preoccupations.  Selected from 126 entries from 17 African countries, the shortlist is once again a reflection of the Caine  Prize’s pan-African reach.  The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on M...

The Orange Prize for Fiction has announced its shortlist for the 2011 prize. From the long-list of 20 books written by women, the shortlist is made up of 6 books from different parts of the world. The number of African women authors have also dropped from 3 to 1: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna. Below is the list: Room by  Emma Donoghue  The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson Great House by Nicole Krauss The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht Annabel by Kathleen Winter Click here for the full announcement . We wish Aminatta Forna well in this award.

The Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Shortlist has been announced. I got this information from Accra Books and Things who also led me to Africa is a Country , where the list have been posted. In the Best Book category there are six books: 4 from South Africa, 1 from Nigeria and another 1 from Sierra Leone. In the First Best Book category there are again 6 books equally shared between Nigeria and South Africa.  Hey! What are the writers in the other countries doing? Is this indicative of the dearth of excellent writers in the remaining fifty-two countries?  Africa Best Book: The Memory of Love by Aminata Forna (Sierra Leone) Men of the South by Sukiswa Wanner (South Africa) The Unseen Leopard by Bridget Pitt (South Africa) Oil on Water by Helon Habila (Nigeria) Blood at Bay by Sue Rabie (South Africa) Banquet at Brabazan by Patricia Schonstein (South Africa) Africa Best First Book: Happiness is a Four Letter Word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa) Bitt...

The Man Booker Shortlist came out yesterday, September 7, 2010. The list has been shortened from the longlist of thirteen (13) to a shortlist of six (6). This time the brouhaha that always follows a shortlist has been slightly muted as most people agree that all the shortlisted authors deserve to be there. Yes! But The Man Booker Prize, worth 50,000 Pounds, would not be Man Booker without the slightest controversies concerning those who are shortlisted. So the absence of Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian author of The Slap and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet , has become an issue and it is very well being discussed by literary enthusiasts. ImageNations interest is in Damon Galgut's In A Strange Room . If Damon's shortlisted book wins the Man Booker Prize he would be the third South African to win the prize, after Nadine Gordimer won with The Conservationist in 1974 and J.M. Coetzee won with Life and Times of Michael K in 1983 and with Disgr...

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...

Brian Chikwava is an African writer. His short story Seventh Street Alchemy was awarded the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing and Chikwava became the first Zimbabwean to do so. Brian is among the exciting new generation of writers emerging on the African continent. Although born in Bulawayo, Chikwava's formative years were spent in Harare, where he attended university and frequented the popular artistes' venue The Book Café. The Fig Tree and the Wasp is a short story I read at the Granta online magazine. This short story is an interesting and thought-provoking piece. It defines the author-artiste and projects him very much. I have not read anything by Brian save this short story and I am very much impressed by his writing. The freedom for independence, which led to freedom of indulgence, the contraction of the 'long-illness' disease and the death of the the victim, is the trajectory upon which the story travels. The lives of men and women, boys and...

  Nana Awere Damoah Nana Awere Damoah, the author of Excursions in My Mind, has published his latest book titled 'Through the Gates of Thought'. This book is a collection of stories, aphorisms, poetry and articles. Nana's literary exploit has taken him far and wide and his story 'Truth Floats' also appeared in the maiden edition of StoryTime's anthology African Roar .  Nana receives his education in both Ghana and the UK. He is a chemical engineer at Unilever and still finds time to write. He is a family man whose closeness to his family led him to dedicate a whole blog just for his children. Through the Gates of Thought promises to be an interesting read. I would be interviewing the engineer, father, writer, author and man of virtues soon on this blog. This new book is available on the world wide web through amazon.com click here to purchase... Nii Ayikwei Parkes Nii Ayikwei Parkes's poem ballast: a remix is one of the six shortlisted poems from over ...