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| Okwiri Oduor |
Congratulations are in order for Kenyan writer,
Okwiri Oduor who emerged as the 2014 winner for the prestigious
Caine Prize for African Writing. Oduor scooped the award for her short story entitled ‘
My Father's Head’ form Feast, Famine and Potluck.
This year marks fifteen years of the annual Caine Prize rewarded to African writers for short stories published in English with a reward of £10,000.
''My Father’s Head’ explores the narrator’s difficulty in dealing with the loss of her father and looks at the themes of memory, loss and loneliness. The narrator works in an old people’s home and comes into contact with a priest, giving her the courage to recall her buried memories of her father.''
Other shortlisted candidates were: Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) "Phosphorescence" in Cabin Fever, Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) "Chicken" in Feast, Famine and Potluck, Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) "The Intervention" in Open Road Review, issue 7 and Billy Kahora (Kenya) "The Gorilla's Apprentice" in Granta.
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Okwiri Oduor directed the inaugural Writivism Literary Festival in Kampala, Uganda in August 2013. Her novella, The Dream Chasers was highly commended in the Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012. She is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow and is currently at work on her debut novel.''
Last year's Caine Prize was won by Nigerian writer,
Tope Folarin.
Congratulations :)
Photo Credit: Caine Prize
