The Caine Prize Anthology 2013 - A Memory This Size - published in Zimbabwe

'amaBooks has co-published the 2013 Caine Prize anthology. A Memory This Size, with six other African publishers - Jacana Media in South Africa, Cassava Republic in Nigeria, Kwani? in Kenya, FEMRITE in Uganda, Sub-Saharan Publishers in Ghana and Bookworld in Zambia - and with New Internationalist in the United Kingdom. The winner of the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing was Tope Folarin of Nigeria with the story Miracle.

A chronically shortsighted young man finds himself the target of a preacher’s miracle cure… Despite his American street phrases and his fistful of dollars, a prodigal son’s visit to his Sierra Leone home does not go quite as planned… A medical student blinded in an accident seems to lose everything but soon learns what he has gained… Life on the edge for a gang of street boys paid to disrupt an election… An oil spill opens a path for a Nigerian teacher to join the woman she loves in the US…

The shortlisted stories for the 2013 Caine Prize – Africa’s leading literary prize – offer five arresting, diverse, provocative snapshots of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of accelerating change.

The shortlisted authors are:

Tope Folarin (Nigeria) for Miracle

Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) for Foreign Aid

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) for The Whispering Trees

Elnathan John (Nigeria) for Bayan Layi 

Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) America

In addition, 12 writers from six different African countries took part in the Caine Prize Writers’ Workshop, held this year in Uganda, where they each produced a special story for this volume. 

These 17 stories show yet again the richness and range of current writing on the continent. They underline the primacy of the short story, with its oral antecedents, at the very heart of African literature.

Africa’s most important literary award.’  – International Herald Tribune

‘Dazzling and splendidly diverse.’  – The Times, London

2012 Caine Prize anthology published in Zimbabwe

'amaBooks are delighted to have published African Violet, the 2012 Caine Prize anthology, joining other African publishers Cassava Republic in Nigeria, Jacana Media in South Africa, FEMRITE in Uganda, Sub-Saharan Publishers in Ghana, Bookworld Publishers in Zambia and Kwani? in Kenya in their commitment to making good stories from Africa available to be read across the African continent. The book is also published by New Internationalist in the United Kingdom.

       The Caine Prize for African Writing collection showcases short stories in English by writers from across the African continent. For the first time, the 2012 anthology is published in Zimbabwe.

Selected from 122 stories from 14 African countries, this anthology contains the stories from the 13th annual Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist, along with those from the 10th Caine Prize workshop for African writers, which was held in South Africa earlier in the year.

The Caine Prize is recognized as Africa’s leading literary competition, often referred to as ‘Africa’s Booker’. The book contains contributions from two Zimbabwean writers, Melissa Tandiwe Myambo, whose story La Salle de Départ was shortlisted for the 2012 prize, and Tendai Rinos Mwanakana.

The winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize for this year is Rotimi Babatunde for his short story entitled Bombay’s Republic, which deals with the story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in the Burma campaign of World War Two. The other authors shortlisted for the Caine Prize appearing in the publication are Billy Kahora (Kenya); Stanley Kenani (Malawi); and Constance Myburgh (South Africa).

The other stories in the collection are by Mehul Gohil (Kenya), Grace Khunou (South Africa), Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana), BM Kunga (Kenya), Waigwa Ndiang’ui (Kenya), Yewande Omotoso (Nigeria / South Africa), Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda), Rehana Rossouw (South Africa) and Rachel Zadok (South Africa).

‘Dazzling and splendidly diverse’ – The Times, London

‘A vital collection drawing on a rich treasury of material’ – The Guardian, London

‘Africa’s most important literary award’ – International Herald Tribune

'Over the past ten years, the Caine Prize has done a great deal to foster writing in Africa and bring exciting new African writers to the attention of wider audiences' - J. M. Coetzee