Zimbabwean writer wins Caine Prize

raised the country’s flag high with her short story titled “Hitting Budapest”, from The Boston Review scooped the prestigious award on Monday at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Bulawayo emerged as the winner of the £10 000 prize at a colourful dinner held on Monday.

According to one of the judges, award-winning author Hisham Matar described Bulawayo’s book as a masterpiece.
“The language of ‘Hitting Budapest’ crackles. Here we encounter Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho, a gang reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. But these are children, poor, violated and hungry.

“This is a story with moral power and weight, it has the artistry to refrain from moral commentary. NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who takes delight in language,” Matar said.
Among other competitors were Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana) “In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata” from “The Bed Book of Short Stories” and Tim Keegan (South Africa).

“What Molly Knew” from “Bad Company” published by Pan Macmillan SA, 2008, David Medalie (South Africa) “The Mistress’s Dog”, from “The Mistress’s Dog: Short Stories 1996-2010” published by Picador Africa, 2010 and Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda) among others took part.

As the winner of the Caine Prize, Bulawayo will be given the opportunity to take up a month’s residence at Georgetown University, Washington DC.
The award will cover all travel and living expenses.

Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe.
She recently completed her MFA at Cornell University, in the US, where she is now a Truman Capote Fellow and lecturer in English.
One of her stories, “Snapshots”, was shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN or Studzinski Literary Award.

She recently completed a novel manuscript tentatively titled “We Need New Names”, and has begun work on a memoir project.
Last year, writer Olufemi Terry from Sierra Leone won the Caine Prize.

As the then chair of judges, Fiammetta Rocco, said at the time, the story was ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative.
“Olufemi Terry’s “Stickfighting Days” presents a heroic culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception.

Previous winners include Sudan’s Leila Aboulela, winner of the first Caine Prize in 2000, whose new novel “Lyrics Alley” was published last year by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, as well as Binyavanga Wainaina, from Kenya, who founded the well-known literary magazine, Kwani.
The magazine was dedicated to promoting the work of new Kenyan writers and whose memoir “One Day I Will Write About this Place” would be published by Granta Books in November 2011.