2017 Africa Writes #P&P Highlights Reel: 2017 Caine Prize Conversation

By Africa in Words on 5 July , 2020 • ( 0 )

AiW note: If AiW memory serves, since at least 2014, Africa Writes has hosted the Caine Prize shortlisted writers in conversation, prior to the announcement of the winner in July. At AiW, we’ve been reviewing the shortlisted stories and thinking about the context of prize culture for at least as long. Our 2017 Africa Writes #PastAndPresent post, in the absence of the in-person festival this year, usually held over this first weekend in July, pays tribute to this as we re-post some excerpts from our 2017 Caine Prize “blogathon”.

For the other re-posts in this series of our Africa Writes fest-weekender, see the full timetable here, or scroll through the site for more.

And we’ve just begun our run of reviews of the 2020 Caine Prize shortlist, which we’ll put out each Friday in July – see Zahra Banday’s review of Irenosen Okijie’s story ‘Grace Jones’ – ‘Tragedy and Trauma in a Roland Mouret Jacket’.

See the AFRICA WRITES 2017 FULL PROGRAMME

C. Africa Writes

2017 Caine Prize Conversation
Saturday 1 July
15:15 – 16:45
Meet the shortlisted writers Lesley Nneka Arimah,Chikodili Emelumadu, Bushra al-Fadil, Arinze Ifeakandu and Magogodi oaMphela Makhene.

The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience using our annual literary award. In addition to administering the Prize, we work to connect readers with African writers through a series of public events, as well as helping emerging writers in Africa to enter the world of mainstream publishing through the annual Caine Prize writers’ workshop which takes place in a different African country each year.

The stories written at Caine Prize workshops are published annually alongside the Prize’s shortlisted stories in the annual Caine Prize Anthology by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in eight African countries including, Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), G adsen Publishers (Zambia), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe) and Langaa (Cameroon).

AiW’s Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, 2017.

This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Read our reviews and the stories via the Caine website.

Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 1: ‘The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away’ by Bushra al-Fadil

AiW Guest: Rebekah Bale.
First published on AiW: 26 June, 2017.

Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 2: ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’ by Lesley Nneka Arimah

AiW Guest: Kufre Usanga.
First published on AiW: 27 June, 2017.

Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 3: ‘Bush Baby’ by Chikodili Emelumadu

AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi
First published on AiW: 28 June, 2017.

Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 4: ‘The Virus’ by Magogodi Makhene

AiW Guest: David Reiersgord
First published on AiW: 29 June, 2017.

Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 5: ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’ by Arinze Ifeakandu

AiW Guest: David Borman
First published on AiW: 30 June, 2017

For more coverage of our Caine Prize blogs over the years, including this year’s series, just begun, see the category here. And check out our full timetable of our Africa Writes #PastAndPresent weekend: Back to Africa Writes – AiW’s #PastAndPresent – Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th July, 2020.