Caine African Prize

The shortlist for the 2004 Caine Prize has been announced. The finalists are Doreen Baingana (Uganda) for “Hunger,” which appeared in The Sun; Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe) for “Seventh Street Alchemy,” which was published in Writing Still: New Stories from Zimbabwe; Parselelelo Kantai (Kenya) for “The Story of Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys Band,” which appeared in Kwani?; Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda) for Strange Fruit,” which appeared online at AuthorMe; and Chika Unigwe (Nigeria) for “The Secret,” which was online at Open Wide. All the short-listed authors will receive a travel award, and the winner will take home $15,000. The Caine Prize has been dubbed “The African Booker.” Previous winners include Leila Aboulela (Sudan), Helon Habila (Nigeria), Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya) and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya). I haven’t seen coverage of the shortlist anywhere on the major outlets, but if I come across anything, I’ll update here.

Thanks to Sefi for the link.