Zoe Wicomb

Caine Prize 2015 judging panel announced in Nigeria

The people who will be judging the Caine Prize for 2015 have been revealed. The announcement was made earlier today at the ongoing at the Ake Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria.

The Caine Prize, for the four visitors from Kyrgyzstan who visited this blog in May, is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, the former Chairman of Booker plc and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years.

Here are the esteemed judges who will be handing out a cool UK pounds 10,000 next year. They are led by award-winning South African born author Zoë Wicomb. Wicomb lives in Glasgow, where she teaches creative writing and Post Colonial literature at the University of Strathclyde.

Some of her works include You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town (1987) a collection of short stories, David’s Story (2000), Playing In The Light (2006) and another collection The One That Got Away. She was one the winners of the Windham Campbell Prize last year.

She will be joined by television and radio journalist Zeinab Badawi, who many Kenyans will remember for her role in the BBC, specifically as one of the host of its Hard Talk show where people get grilled.   Also in the panel is Indian author Neel Mukherjee who was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year for this book The Lives of Others.

Then there is the assistant Professor of English at the University of Georgetown Cóilín Parsons. Finally, there is the winner of the Caine Prize in 2004 Brian Chikwava for his short story “Seventh Street Alchemy” becoming the first Zimbabwean to accomplish this task. For those who have been asking Chikava lives in London which means that there is no single judge of the award who lives on the continent. Shine your eyes on that one.

Speaking at the announcement Caine Prize Director Lizzy Attree stated, “We are proud to announce the 2015 judges early this year and hope the calibre of this outstanding panel will encourage publishers to enter stories before the deadline of 31 January 2015.”

The judges meet in April 2015 to decide on the shortlisted stories, which will be announced shortly thereafter. £500 will be awarded to each shortlisted writer. The winning story will be announced at a dinner at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on Monday 6 July 2015.

Comments

2 responses to “Caine Prize 2015 judging panel announced in Nigeria”

  1. […] were also important announcements on the Caine Prize judges for 2015, the new Mabati-Cornell Kiswahil prize and the new Writivism mentees were […]

  2. […] the prizes in, its now the time for the judges, chaired by award-winning South African author Zoë Wicomb announced last year, to do the work of whittling down this number to five as is the tradition with this […]

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