The collection includes short stories from across Africa, written by the writers shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing and by those who participated in its annual workshop – held in Zimbabwe earlier year.
The shortlisted writers were Zimbabwe’s Tendai Huchu, Diane Awerbuck (South Africa), Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia), Billy Kahora (Kenya) and Okwiri Oduor, also from Kenya. This year’s winner, announced at a prestigious event at the Bodleian Library in Oxford was Okwiri Oduor, with her story My Father’s Head.
The Chair of judges, award-winning author Jackie Kay, described the shortlist as, “Compelling, lyrical, thought-provoking and engaging. From a daughter’s unusual way of grieving for her father, to a memorable swim with a grandmother, a young boy’s fascination with a gorilla’s conversation, a dramatic faux family meeting, to a woman who is forced to sell her eggs, the subjects are as diverse as they are entertaining.”
Tendai Huchu, the shortlisted Zimbabwean, is the author of the novel The Hairdresser of Harare. His short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in numerous publications. His next novel The Maestro, The Magistrate, & The Mathematician, will be published by ‘amaBooks in the near future.
A Caine Prize anthology is published annually. This year’s collection, The Gonjon Pin, as well as being published by ‘amaBooks in Zimbabwe and several other African publishers.
One of the writers in the collection, Bryony Rheam, has also been in the news as her debut novel, This September Sun, was selected as one of the ‘50 books by African women that everyone should read’ before they die. She joins other Zimbabwean women writers on the list – NoViolet Bulawayo, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Yvonne Vera.
Post published in: Arts