eBook: Lusaka Punk and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2015

Now in its 16th year, The Caine Prize for African Writing has become an established prize on the literature calendar attracting high-calibre writers from all over the continent. 2015 has been no exception with a record number of eligible entries, 153 stories from 17 African countries. With the short-listed (which includes one past winner and two previously shortlisted writers announced in May, the winner will be revealed at an event taking place on Monday 6th July at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In celebration of the award and to help bring African fiction to a wider audience, New Internationalist is delighted to publish Lusaka Punk and other stories, an anthology that includes not only this years’ five short-listed stories but also a further twelve stories that are the result of a Writers’ Workshop that took place in Ghana in April. Short-listed Stories: The Folded Leaf by Segun Afolabi (Nigeria) Flying by Elnathan John (Nigeria) A Party for the Colonel by FT Kola (South Africa) Space by Masande Ntshanga (South Africa) The Sack by Namwali Serpell (Zambia) The Caine Prize African Writers’ Workshop Stories 2015: #Yennenga by Jemila Abdulai (Ghana) The Road Workers of Chalbi by Dalle Abraham (Kenya) Wahala Lizard by Nkiacha Atemnkeng (Cameroon) Nehushtan by Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) Swallowing Ice by Nana Nyarko Boateng (Ghana) Lusaka Punk by Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) The Writing in the Stars by Jonathan Dotse (Ghana) Burial by Akwaeke Emezi (Nigeria) The Song of a Goat by Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) Princess Sailendra of Malindi by Kiprop Kimutai (Kenya) Blood Match by Jonathan Mbuna (Malawi) Coloured Renditionby Aisha Nelson (Ghana) On Monday, 6th July, Namwali Serpell was announced as the 2015 winner for her short story ‘The Sack’ as featured in (‘Lusaka Punk and other stories’). This prestigious award was said to be an ‘honour’ to receive by the Zambian writer, who then chose to share the stage and also offered to share the prize money with her fellow shortlisted African writers. 'Understatement and the unspoken prevail: hints of an orphan’s identity bring poignant understanding of his world; the reader is slowly and expertly guided to awareness of a narrator’s blindness; there is delicate allusion to homosexual love; a disfigured human body is encountered in relation to adolescent escapades; a nameless wife’s insecurities barely mask her understanding of injustice; and, we are given a flash of insight into dark passions that rise out of a surreal resistance culture.' - Zoë Wicomb, South African author. 'My favourite story so far is ‘Flying’ by Elnathan John. ‘Flying’ is how a short story should be: simple yet moving. The story is about Tachio – a JSS3 (9th grade) dorm leader of a refugee home/school, who believes he can fly once he falls asleep. Elnathan’s use of metaphors in comparing human appearances to animals gave the story some spice.' - Darkowaa, African Book Addict . For more information on the Caine Prize, please go to: www.caineprize.com Format: eBook Pages: 240