Alvaro Ribeiro, this year’s Chair of the judges, was also a judge for the first Caine Prize in 2000. Alvaro is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University, Washington DC, where he teaches courses on Shakespeare, the Eighteenth Century and the Man Booker Prize. The other judges on this year’s panel included Nigerian playwright Biyi Bandele; Bernice Rubens, whose novels include ‘The Elected Member’ for which she won the 1970 Booker Prize, ‘Our Father’, and most recently ‘Nine Lives’; Anna Umbima, broadcaster and journalist; and Nana Wilson-Tagoe, Senior Lecturer in African Literature, at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

The Caine Prize, awarded annually for African creative writing, is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years. The Prize is awarded for a short story by an African writer, published in English (whether in Africa or elsewhere), with an indicative length of 3,000 to 15,000 words. An “African writer” will normally be taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or whose parents are African, and whose work has reflected that cultural background.

The four African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka, Naguib Mahfouz, Nadine Gordimer and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of The Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council and Jonathan Taylor is the Chairman.

For further information contact:
Pernille Goodall
Raitt Orr & Associates Ltd
Tel: 020 7222 5479
Fax: 020 7222 5480
Email: pernille@raittorr.co.uk

Nick Elam
The Caine Prize for African Writing
Tel: 020 7376 0440
Fax: 020 7938 3728
Email: info@caineprize.com
www.caineprize.com

posted 20/7/04

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