by Sophy on 23 May 2012
Alert! Nigerian author Jekwu Anyaegbuna has been named the winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Africa Region for his story “Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)”.
Anyaegbuna wins £1 000 and will now compete for the overall Commonwealth Short Story Prize against four other regional winners, picked from a shortlist of 21: Asia regional winner, Anushka Jasraj (“Radio Story”); Caribbean regional winner, Diana McCaulay (“The Dolphin Catcher”); Pacific regional winner, Emma Martin (“Two Girls in a Boat”); and Europe and Canada regional winner, Andrea Mullaney (“The Ghost Marriage”). The winner of the £5 000 prize will be announced at the Hay Festival on 8 June.
Congratulations and best of luck to Jekwu Anyaegbuna!
‘Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)’, Jekwu Anyaegbuna (Nigeria)
“There was a public bed situated at the centre of a market in a remote village in Africa. The bed could kill; yet every villager, male or female, fought like a lion to lay his/her back on this bed every year. Whoever succeeded in sleeping on this famous furniture overnight became a servant in the king’s mother’s fortress. The Commonwealth competition is this bed, and I am immensely thrilled to have won for Africa. I strongly believe this prize will provide me with the hoes and shovels to serve my motherland, Africa, affording me the strength and opportunity to plough through the thick literary farmland across the world.”
Jekwu Anyaegbuna was raised and educated in Nigeria where he qualified as a chartered accountant. He was shortlisted by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the Farafina Trust International Creative Writers’ Programme. A graduate of the University of Ilorin, he writes both poetry and prose; and his work has been widely published, or will be published, in literary journals in the United States and the UK including Ambit, Orbis, Word Riot, Other Poetry, The Journal, Bow-Wow Shop, Eclectica Magazine, Atticus Review, Yuan Yang Journal, The Talon Magazine, Dark Lady Poetry, Asinine Poetry, Vox Poetica, Breadcrumb Scabs, Haggard and Halloo, New Black Magazine, Pattaya Poetry Review, Dcomp Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal, Obsession, Black Heart Magazine and many other places. He hates mosquitoes and sometimes wonders whether they are domestic or wild animals. Jekwu lives, works and writes in Lagos where he has completed a manuscript of short stories. He is currently at work on his first novel.
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South African-born author Jacques Strauss was announced as the regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize, a companion award to the Short Story Prize, for his debut novel, The Dubious Salvation of Jack V. The overall winners of both prizes will be revealed on 8 June.
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Press release:
Commonwealth Writers has announced the regional winners for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these new writers will now compete for overall winner which will be announced at Hay Festival on 8 June.
Commonwealth Book Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jacques Strauss, South Africa The Dubious Salvation of Jack V, Jonathan Cape
Regional Winner, Asia
Shehan Karunatilaka, Sri Lanka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Random House
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Riel Nason, Canada, The Town that Drowned, Goose Lane Editions
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Alecia McKenzie, Jamaica, Sweetheart, Peepal Tree Press
Regional Winner, Pacific
Cory Taylor, Australia, Me and Mr Booker, The Text Publishing Company
Commenting on the winners, Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Margaret Busby said, “We were wonderfully spoilt for choice among some strong regional contenders on the shortlist, and although we could not take every favourite further, the books that triumphed are a reminder of what the best fiction can be: moving, entertaining, enlightening, exciting, engaging our thoughts and emotions, while creating an intimate connection with someone else’s imagination. Here are novels with memorable characters, unpredictable situations, a sense of humour, books that give insights into cultures and histories not our own, crafted by writers who care about language, and its ability to renew and enrich our view of the world. ”
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jekwu Anyaegbuna, Nigeria, Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)
Regional Winner, Asia
Anushka Jasraj, India, Radio Story
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Andrea Mullaney, UK, The Ghost Marriage
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Diana McCaulay, Jamaica, The Dolphin Catcher
Regional Winner, Pacific
Emma Martin, New Zealand, Two Girls in a Boat
Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bernardine Evaristo said, “The five regional winning stories this year rose to the top of a pool of 2200 entries and are the result of vigorous debate among the judges. We discussed not only the quality of the storytelling but the context of their respective literary cultures including notions of stereotypes and ‘the prize-winning formula’. Our final choices encompass range, depth, beauty, unpredictability and re-readability. These short stories will take you on a journey that spans cultures, eras, generations, and diverse ways of being and seeing. To read them is to inhabit other worlds.”
Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online during the week commencing 4 June.
John Freeman, Editor of Granta said: “The Commonwealth Short Story Prize introduces some of the best writers in the world, writers who bring a thrilling and essential glimpse of the world and the worlds that are within Britain. This is also what I hope Granta has been as a magazine. A Trojan Horse for writers you don’t know, but once you read cannot forget: writers who can make the ground beneath your feet a little more mysterious. I am pleased Granta can partner with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize to help carry this mission forward.”
Commonwealth Writers is a new cultural programme within the Commonwealth Foundation which develops, connects and inspires writers. By awarding prizes and running on-the-ground activities, it works in partnership with international literary organisations, the wider cultural industries and civil society to help writers develop their craft in the fifty four countries of the Commonwealth. www.commonwealthwriters.org is a forum where members from anywhere in the world can exchange ideas and contribute to debates.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2011, the Commonwealth Foundation re-launched its prizes to form part of Commonwealth Writers. The prizes act as catalysts to target and identify talented writers from different regions who will go on to inspire and inform their local communities.
Lucy Hannah, Programme Manager (Culture) Commonwealth Foundation, said “These two new prizes are a really positive start to Commonwealth Writers. We had entries from a huge range of countries including Lesotho, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Samoa. We’ll now be helping our regional winners to gain a wider readership, develop their craft and to inspire others in their region.”
Ends
Photos courtesy Black Heart Magazine and Culture Critic
by Luso on 18 May 2012
Malawian author Stanley Kenani has been shortlisted for the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story “Love on Trial”, published in For Honour and Other Stories.
Kenani is up against Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde, Kenya’s Billy Kahora, Zimbabwe’s Melissa Tandiwe Myambo and South Africa’s Constance Myburgh for the £10 000 prize, the winner of which will be announced on 2 July. Last week we featured Kahora’s shortlisted story, “Urban Zoning”.
While you await the announcement of the award, we invite you to read “Love on Trial”:
Mr Lapani Kachingwe’s popularity has soared. He has always been popular because of his love for strong drink. But from the time he stumbled upon two young men in a toilet, his fame has reached levels he never imagined. In principle his story is for free, whether he is sober or drunk, but in practice if you want to get down to the finest details, ‘the juiciest parts’ as he calls them, you have to buy him a tot of kachasu, the spirit distilled at Mr Nashoni’s Village Entertainment Centre on the outskirts of Chipiri village. In truth, nobody ever finds out what the strands of those details are in Mr Kachingwe’s story. After listening to it many times, one comes to the conclusion that whatever happened in that toilet, the long and the short of it is that Mr Kachingwe caught two boys, one of whom is Chipiri village’s own Charles Chikwanje and the other a stranger presumably from a neighbouring village, in flagrante.
Book details
Photo courtesy the Caine Prize
by Izak on 17 May 2012
Hennie Aucamp het twee treffende kort-kortverhale, “Vrou op ‘n eiland” en “‘n Ou man wat wou weet”, ingeskryf vir Protea Boekhuis se kortverhaalkompetisie op LitNet.
Deelnemers moes verhale oor “‘n verhouding met ‘n vervaldatum” skryf. Die idee vir die kompetisie kom van Réney Warrington se debuutroman, Oktober, wat onder meer met die tydelikheid van ‘n verhouding worstel.
Inskrywings van nuwe en gevestigde skrywers is ontvang en die beste verhale is op LitNet gepubliseer. Lees Aucamp se verhale:
Daar het oor maande ’n diep behoefte by die vrou ontstaan, en op ’n dag het sy besluit: ek gaan myself herhaal. En watter keuse had sy nou ook? Sy was haar enigste model, van altyd af.
Maar eers het sy die wortel van vergetelheid berei; dae lank, oor ’n stadige vuur. En toe die astrak reg was, het sy dit eenkant gesit om af te koel.
Nou is my kans, dink die ou man toe die doodsengel by hom opdaag. Want die ou man wou nog altyd geweet het. Sy boeke was so vaag of dubbelsinnig oor die saak.
Sjoe, sê die engel, die lugverkeer raak deesdae iets ysliks. Hy gaan sit langs die sterfbed presies soos ’n algemene praktisyn. Wat minder algemeen aandoen, is die manier waarop hy sy engelkleed tot bokant sy boude en knieë optrek voor hy gaan sit.
Boekbesonderhede
In an article for O Magazine, Diane Awerbuck, author of the short story collection Cabin Fever, comments on the necessity of being able to access a quiet state for both reading and writing. Awerbuck finds inspiration in Hatha yoga:
Uitspraak: ‘n wortel van Louise Viljoen en ‘n stokkie van Harry Kalmer 
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