ktravula – a travelogue!

The 2013 Caine Prize Shortlist

Out of this year’s five shortlisted stories for the annual Caine Prize for Writing, four of the stories are from Nigeria. This is unprecedented in the history of the organization. According to the announcement on the Caine Prize website,

“The five contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that we might feel we know of Africa – violence, religion, corruption, family, community – but these are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully remade. These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change.”

The shortlisted stories are:

  • Elnathan John (Nigeria) ‘Bayan Layi’ from Per Contra, Issue 25 (USA, 2012)
  • Tope Folarin (Nigeria) ‘Miracle’ from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012)
  • Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) ‘Foreign Aid’ from Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23.3 (Philadelphia, 2012)
  • Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) ‘The Whispering Trees’ from The Whispering Trees, published by Parrésia Publishers (Lagos, 2012)
  • Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) ‘America’ from Granta, Issue 118 (London, 2012)

Like many literary-minded bloggers did last year, I intend to participating in this year’s pre-award review of the five short stories for the reading and critical public. Keep a date on this blog for a review of each of the stories, one for each week that passes between now and the announcement of the winner.

A review of Elnathan John’s Bayan Layi will be up here and on the Nigerianstalk LitMag  in coming days.

The 2013 Caine Prize Shortlist was published on May 15th, 2013, with the tags , , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Two Short Stories

Birdsong by Chimamanda Adichie.

In Memory by Emmanuel Iduma.

Enjoy

Two Short Stories was published on October 1st, 2010, with the tags , , under the Fun, Literature category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Introducing African Roar!

In a few days time, a new book will hit the shelves all over the world. It’s African Roar! It is a collection of short stories written by authors from different countries in Africa. As the name suggests, it is an African roar! Do you hear the rumbles?

My first published story, first titled The First Test has now been published in the anthology as Behind the Door. It is a story of one man in contemplation while going through the aisle of a private hospital.

But African Roar has more than just one story. From Novuyo Rosa’s Big Pieces, Little Pieces to Ayodele Morocco Clarke’s The Nestbury Tree to Beaven Tapureta’s Cost Of Courage, Chuma Nwokolo’s QuarterBack & Co and Ivor W. Hartmann’s Lost Love, the collection takes you onto imaginative plains and hills, and all the eleven stories leave you with an exhilaration that you can only get from the little pleasures of the other person’s imagination. Other stories in the collection are Yesterday’s Dog by Masimba Musodza, Cost Of Courage by Beaven Tapureta, A Cicada In The Shimmer by Christopher Mlalazi, A Return To The Moonlight by Emmanuel Sigauke, Truth Floats by Nana A. Damoah’s and Tamale Blues by Ayesha H. Attah. Each of the stories tells something of the African experience, and more.

The stories that make up the work were all drawn from the very best stories published from 2007-2009 on the Story Time website. The anthology is published by Lion Press Ltd UK, and is edited by Ivor Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke. It will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and some physical book stores worldwide in a few days. It will also be available on the Kindle.

You may follow the twitter feeds of African Roar at http://www.twitter.com/africanroar and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/African.Roar for more information. Autographed copies will also be available, I’m sure, as soon as possible.

I’m ex… ex… excited. Are you?

Introducing African Roar! was published on May 6th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , , under the Academic, Art, News category. There are currently 7 comments on this article so far.