Okwiri Oduor Wins the 2014 Caine Prize for “My Father’s Head”
Congratulations to our 15th winner of the #CainePrize – Okwiri Oduor http://t.co/wkPVbxIVOy pic.twitter.com/TlJsw13kRm
— Caine Prize (@CainePrize) July 15, 2014
Alert! On the day when the sad news broke that one of its patrons, Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, had passed away, the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing was awarded to Okwiri Oduor for her short story, “My Father’s Head”, which originally appeared in Short Story Day Africa‘s collection, Feast, Famine and Potluck.
And the winner is….
— Caine Prize (@CainePrize) July 14, 2014
Okwiri Oduor for her short story, 'My Father's Head'
— Caine Prize (@CainePrize) July 14, 2014
Oduor receives £10 000, while each shortlistee received £500. Read her winning story here.
The announcement was made, comme toujours, at a gala supper at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK. The winner, who hails from Kenya, emerged from a field containing another Kenyan, one South African, one Zimbabwean and a Ghanaian/Zambian – a shortlist of some contrast to the previous year’s, which was an all-West African affair, and which was won by Nigerian Tope Folarin.
Oduor, who was at the prizegiving, was quoted as follows:
@CainePrize Okwiri Oduor "so hopeful and grateful about this thing we call African literature"
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
Press release
Okwiri Oduor wins fifteenth Caine Prize for African Writing
Kenya’s Okwiri Oduor has won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for her short story entitled ‘My Father’s Head’ from Feast, Famine and Potluck (Short Story Day Africa, South Africa, 2013).
The Chair of Judges, Jackie May MBE, announced Okwiri Oduor as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday, 14 July) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
‘My Father’s Head’ explores the narrator’s difficulty in dealing with the loss of her father and looks at the themes of memory, loss and loneliness. The narrator works in an old people’s home and comes into contact with a priest, giving her the courage to recall her buried memories of her father.
Jackie Kay praised the story, saying, “Okwiri Oduor is a writer we are all really excited to have discovered. ‘My Father’s Head’ is an uplifting story about mourning – Joycean in its reach. She exercises an extraordinary amount of control and yet the story is subtle, tender and moving. It is a story you want to return to the minute you finish it.”
Okwiri Oduor directed the inaugural Writivism Literary Festival in Kampala, Uganda in August 2013. Her novella, The Dream Chasers was highly commended in the Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012. She is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow and is currently at work on her debut novel.
Ends
Here are key tweets from the event, presided over by the prize’s vice president, Ben Okri, who gave a rousing speech on our individual and collective freedom of the imagination:
Caine Prize 2014 winner announced tonight! "@CainePrize: pic.twitter.com/u2dLxxaM9g” #caineprize
— Angela Wachuka (@angelawachuka) July 14, 2014
Jonathan Taylor opens 15th @CainePrize with a moments silence for Nadime Gordimer @bodleianlibs
— Richard Ovenden (@richove) July 14, 2014
Baroness Nicholson thanks the 2014 judges for choosing such a strong selection of short stories
— Caine Prize (@CainePrize) July 14, 2014
@CainePrize Baronness thanks Jackie Kay and all judges esp previous winner Helon Habila!
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
In the room @caineprize pic.twitter.com/JTDPwDLNo2
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
Ben Okri giving a speech before the winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing 2014 is announced @CainePrize @ikhide
— Nkem Ivara (@thewordsmythe) July 14, 2014
A gap in a trinity of patrons of the Caine Prize tonight. #NadineGordimer @CainePrize pic.twitter.com/b683E6Zwxc
— Isobel Dixon (@isobeldixon) July 14, 2014
Ben Okri speaks of the missing Nigerian girls with 'a sense of rage… their fate hangs over us' @CainePrize
— Isobel Dixon (@isobeldixon) July 14, 2014
Ben Okri grandiloquent as always @CainePrize talking about african lit.defined by subjects… pic.twitter.com/2MK7M9Q4kC
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
@CainePrize Ben Okri #bringbackourgirls my theme tonight is freedom
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
We read Flaubert for beauty, Jane Austen for psychology, but the #african writer is expected to write about poverty mt @benokri #caineprize
— Afua Hirsch (@afuahirsch) July 14, 2014
@CainePrize Ben Okri powerful words about the tyranny of subjects, rather look for poetry and beauty – space for the imagination
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
"If the subject was the most important thing, we would not need art, we would not need literature" Ben Okri #caineprize
— Nkem Ivara (@thewordsmythe) July 14, 2014
Ben Okri is giving the best #CainePrize speech yet. One of the best prize speeches ever. @CainePrize
— Isobel Dixon (@isobeldixon) July 14, 2014
@CainePrize Jackie Kay at the podium pic.twitter.com/iJw3QoLBuu
— Lizzy Attree (@LizzyAttree) July 14, 2014
'My Father's Head' (http://t.co/WWqPsxfGfL), by Okwiri Oduor (@Okwiri_) awarded @CainePrize
— Michael Orthofer (@MAOrthofer) July 14, 2014
Owkiri wins the Caine Prize!
— Binyavanga Wainaina (@BinyavangaW) July 14, 2014
Kenya wins Caine Prize!
— Binyavanga Wainaina (@BinyavangaW) July 14, 2014
Huge congratulations to Okwiri Oduor for her @CainePrize win. . So proud to have published "My Father's Head" in Feast, Famine & Potluck.
— Short Story Day AFR (@ShortStoryAFR) July 14, 2014
A hearty congrats to Okwiri Oduor! Well deserved. #caineprize
— Tope Folarin (@topefolarin) July 14, 2014
Book details
- Feast, Famine and Potluck edited by Karen Jennings
Book homepage
EAN: 9780620588874
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Photo courtesy the Caine Prize