The Caine Prize workshop is one of those events that come along once a year. In these workshops which have been happening since 2003, writers who were shortlisted for the Caine Prize in the previous year are joined by other promising writers. They are mentored by experienced writers on the craft of writing. The workshops have been attended by some of the biggest names in the African literature business as it is now constituted. Last year we shared some of the action from Zimbabwe where the workshop was held.
This year’s Caine Prize workshop is upon us and will be happening from tomorrow in Ghana as earlier mentioned. The twelve writers who are now converging on Ghana are Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) and Efemia Chela (Zambia/Ghana) who were shortlisted for the 2014 prize, Onipede Hollist (Sierra Leona) who was shortlisted in 2013, and nine other promising writers, Dalle Abraham (Kenya), Nkiacha Atemnkeng (Cameroon), Akwaeke Emezi (Nigeria), Timothy Kiprop Kimutai (Kenya), Jonathan Mbuna (Malawi), and Jonathan Dotse, Jemila Abdulai, Aisha Nelson and Nana Nyarko Boateng (Ghana). They will be learning from Leila Aboulela, who is a Sudanese author and winner of the inaugural Caine Prize in 1999, and Zukiswa Wanner, a South African novelist and journalist.
They will be chilling out at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Elmina for thirteen days from tomorrow until 18th April – the lucky buggers. They will also get to visit to local senior and junior schools in the Elmina/Cape Coast area, offering students an opportunity to meet the writers and exchange ideas about writing and literature.
It won’t be all fun and games though. They will be expected to write a story that will be used in the 2015 Caine Prize anthology, which will be published by New Internationalist on 1 July 2015. Good luck with that guys.
This year’s events in Ghana have been supported by Prudential plc, one of the world’s leading financial services groups, and Groupe Nduom, a family business group of Ghanaian and American origin operating in the financial, hospitality, media, and other industries.
Speaking on the support for the award, the CEO of Prudential Africa Matt Lilley, said: “I am delighted that Prudential Africa is working with the Caine Prize to promote the richness and diversity of African writing in English. Prudential Africa is committed to investing in education and we look forward to working with the Caine Prize to nurture and inspire the next generation of writers.”
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