Doreen Baingana, a Ugandan writer has been selected for the AKO Caine Prize by the judging panel.The AKO Caine Prize shortlist was announced revealing five stories of impressive craft and intelligent language from authors’ allover Africa.
Over 22 countries participated in the contest, and this year’s judging panel chose the stories virtually, shortlisting authors for the 2021 Prize are from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Namibia.
“We were looking for literary excellence and great stories. It is clear that the wealth of stories presented to the prize speak about the African experience are from a multitude of perspectives and forms centering on the themes of love, loss, identify, hope and afterlife.” – Founding Director of the African Writers Trust Gorretti Kyomuhendo commented
Doreen Baingana’s short story collection, ‘Tropical Fish’ won the Grace Paley Award for short fiction in 2003 and the common wealth Writer’s Prize for the best first book, Africa Region in 2006. It is from this collection that some stories were picked and made it to the Caine Prize finals in 2004 and 2005.
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English. The prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally
