The 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing

The 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing, the leading literary prize for short stories from the African continent, was awarded to Uganda’s Monica Arac de Nyeko for her story ‘Jambula Tree’ published in African Love Stories (Ayebia Clarke Publishing 2006).

The Chair of Judges, the writer Jamal Mahjoub from Sudan, who was himself short-listed for the Caine Prize in 2004, announced Monica as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK, on 9 July 2007.

He described her story as ‘a witty and touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a love which blossoms between two adolescents’.

The other judges of the 2007 prize were: Wangui wa Goro, the Kenyan academic, critic and writer; Delia Jarrett-Macauley, an award winning novelist; Jonty Driver, South African poet and novelist; and Robert Molteno, former managing editor, Zed Books.

The 2007 prize winner, Monica Arac de Nyeko, was born in Uganda. She is a member of the Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE). She was also short-listed for the Caine Prize in 2004 for her story ‘Strange Fruit’.

As part of the award, Monica will take up a month’s residence at Georgetown University, Washington DC, as a ‘Caine Prize/Georgetown University Writer-in-Residence’. The award will cover all travel and living expenses.

Also on this year’s shortlist were: Uwem Akpan, from Nigeria, for ‘My Parents Bedroom’ (The New Yorker); E.C Osondu, from Nigeria, for ‘Jimmy Carter’s Eyes’ (AGNI Fiction Online); Henrietta Rose-Innes, from South Africa, for ‘Bad Places’ (New Contrast); and Ada Udechukwu, from Nigeria, for ‘Night Bus’, (The Atlantic Monthly). Kenyan Billy Kahora’s ‘Treadmill Love’ published in The Obituary Tango (Jacana/New Internationalist 2006) was highly commended by the judges.

The Caine Prize was launched in 2000, named after Sir Michael Caine. It is awarded to a short story of between 3,000 and 15,000 words, published in English, by an African writer whose work reflects African culture. Translations are eligible, and the internet is an acceptable mode of publication. Previous winners include Helon Habila, Segun Afolabi, Brian Chikwava, Binyavanga Wainaina, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Mary Watson.

For further information, see

Ayebia Clarke Literary Agency and Publishing
BBC interview with the 2007 winner