Caine Prize for African Writing 2013 Shortlist Announced

It's that time of year again for the Caine Prize annual shortlist for African writing. It was announced today, May 15th 2013, and the Chair of judges, Gus Casely-Hayford described the shortlist, from 96 countries and 16 African countries, saying:

 “The 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. These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change.”

The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 8 July. Here are this year's shortlisted authors:

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

Congratulations to all shortlisted authors and more on the Caine Prize shortlist here. A few questions on my mind to end this post: 4 of 5 of the shortlisted author's are Nigerians, will another Nigerian take it (last year's winner was Rotimi Babatunde), or will Pede Hollist from Sierra Leone be the overall winner? When does Blogging the Caine Prize, 2013 begin? And will 3bute be collaborating with the Caine Prize again this year to adapt all shortlisted stories? Oh and who will be reading this year's shortlisted stories?