A new annual prize for African creative writing in English has been launched in London. The Caine Prize is named in honor of the late Sir Michael Caine, the former Chairman of Booker Plc, who was Chairman of the Africa 95 arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995 and for nearly 25 years, Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. He had begun work on establishing a prize before he died in March 1999, with the intention to strengthen African writing, publishing and readership. The first prize of US$15,000 was awarded at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair 2000 in Harare. The three African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature -- Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer and Naguib Mahfouz -- have agreed to be Patrons of the Caine Prize. The two African Booker Prize winners, J. M. Coetzee and Ben Okri, have joined the Council of the Caine Prize.

Contact: Caine Prize for African Writing, 2 Drayson Mews, London W8 4LY, UK. (Tel: +44 20 7376 0440, Fax: +44 20 7938 3728, Email: Caineprize@jftaylor.com

2000 - Leila Aboulela for her short story, "The Museum", published in Opening spaces: an anthology of contemporary African women's writing.  Heinemann, 1999.

2002 - Binyanvanga Wainaina (Kenya) for his short story, Discovering Home, first published on the website G21Net, The World Magazine, 2001.

Amanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) for You in America. USA: Zoetrope: All-Story Extra, 2001.

Florent Couoa-Zotti (Benin) for "Small Hells on Street Corners" from Fools, Thieves and Other Dreamers - Stories from Francophone Africa. Harare: Weaver Press, 2001.

Allan Kolski Horwitz (South Africa) for "Courageous and Steadfast" from Unity in Flight, an anthology of short fiction. Johannesburg: Botsotso Publishing, 2001.

Rory Kilalea (Zimbabwe) for "Zimbabwe Boy" from Asylum 98 and Other Stories. Country Cork, Ireland: Fish Publishing, 2001.

Awards for Books about Africa Homepage