Zambian writer Namwali Serpell has emerged the winner of the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing. The announcement was made on Monday night, July 6 at the Bodeleian Libraries in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Serpell won the £10,000 prize for her story ‘The Sack’ published in ‘Africa39’ (Bloomsbury, London, 2014) beating four other writers on the shortlist – two of which are Nigerian Elnathan John and Segun Afolabi.
Each shortlisted writer will take home £500.
The other shortlisted stories are: Segun Afolabi (Nigeria) for ‘The Folded Leaf’ in Wasafiri (Wasafiri, London, 2014), who won the prize in 2005 for ‘Monday Morning’ and Elnathan John (Nigeria) for ‘Flying’ in Per Contra (Per Contra, International, 2014), he was shortlisted in 2013 for ‘Bayan Layi’.
The rest are: F. T. Kola (South Africa) for ‘A Party for the Colonel’ in One Story (One Story, inc. Brooklyn, New York City, 2014) and Masande Ntshanga (South Africa) for ‘Space’ in Twenty in 20 (Times Media, South Africa, 2014).