2013 Caine Prize Shortlist Announced

 African (and especially Nigerian) literature lovers everywhere, rejoice: the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist, featuring a remarkable fourentries by Nigerian writers, has been released. Speaking about the shortlisted stories, Gus Casely-Hayford, chair of the Caine Prize board of judges, said that "[t]he five contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that we might feel we know of Africa – violence, religion, corruption, family, community – but these are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully remade." The shortlisted stories and authors are:

Elnathan John (Nigeria) ‘Bayan Layi’ from Per Contra, Issue 25 (USA, 2012) Read Bayan Layi
Tope Folarin (Nigeria) ‘Miracle’ from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012) Read Miracle
Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) ‘Foreign Aid’ from Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23.3 (Philadelphia, 2012) Read Foreign Aid
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) ‘The Whispering Trees’ from The Whispering Trees, published by Parrésia Publishers (Lagos, 2012) Read The Whispering Tree
Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) ‘America’ from Granta, Issue 118 (London, 2012) Read America

The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England on July 8. Last year's prize was won by Nigerian writer Rotimi Babatunde for his story ‘Bombay's Republic’. Congratulations to the shortlisted writers!