3 Nigerians make Caine Prize 2017 shortlist

Nigeria’s Lesley Nneka Arimah, Chikodili Emelumadu, and Arinze Ifeakandu have made the Caine Prize for African Writing 2017 shortlist. They were shortlisted for their short stories, ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’, ‘Bush Baby’, and ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’, respectively.   The shortlist of five was announced by Chair of judges, award-winning author, […]

Nigeria’s Lesley Nneka Arimah, Chikodili Emelumadu, and Arinze Ifeakandu have made the Caine Prize for African Writing 2017 shortlist. They were shortlisted for their short stories, ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’, ‘Bush Baby’, and ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’, respectively.

  The shortlist of five was announced by Chair of judges, award-winning author, poet and editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes. The list also includes South Africa’s Magogodi oaMphela Makhene for ‘The Virus’ and  Sudan’s Bushra al-Fadil for ‘The Story of the Girl whose Birds Flew Away’, translated by Max Shmookler.

Parkes said the shortlist “reveals the depth and strength of short story writing from Africa and its diaspora.

“This year’s submissions were a pleasure to read; we were all impressed by the quality and imaginative ambition of the work received. Indeed, there were a dozen stories that did not make the shortlist that would win other competitions.

He continued, “there seemed to be a theme of transition in many of the stories. Whether it’s an ancient myth brought to life in a contemporary setting, a cyber-attack-triggered wave of migration and colonisation, an insatiable quest for motherhood, an entertaining surreal ride that hints at unspeakable trauma, or the loss of a parent in the midst of a personal identity crisis, these writers juxtapose future, past and present to ask important questions about the world we live in.

‘Although they range in tone from the satirical to the surreal, all five stories on this year’s shortlist are unrelentingly haunting. It has been a wonderful journey so far and we look forward to selecting a winner. It will be a hard job, but I have always believed that you can’t go wrong with a Ghanaian at the helm of an international panel.”

The full panel of judges joining Parkes includes the 2007 Caine Prize winner, Monica Arac de Nyeko; author and Chair of the English Department at Georgetown University, Professor Ricardo Ortiz; Libyan author and human rights campaigner, Ghazi Gheblawi; and African literary scholar, Dr Ranka Primorac, University of Southampton.

The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced at an award ceremony and dinner at Senate House Library, London, in partnership with SOAS, on Monday 3 July. Each shortlisted writer will also receive £500.

Each of these stories will be published in New Internationalist’s 2017 Caine Prize anthology ‘The Goddess of Mwtara and Other Stories’ in June and through co-publishers in 16 African countries, who receive a print-ready PDF free of charge.

The Caine Prize of £10,000 is awarded annually for a short story by an African writer published in English. So far five Nigerians have won the prize, the most recent being Tope Folarin in 2013.