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Zimbabwean, NoViolet Bulawayo's 'Hitting Budapest' takes the 12th Caine Prize
12 Jul 2011 at 14:44hrs | Views
Zimbabwe's NoViolet Bulawayo has won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa's leading literary award, for her short story entitled 'Hitting Budapest', from The Boston Review, Vol 35, no. 6 – Nov/Dec 2010.
The Chair of Judges, award-winning author Hisham Matar, announced NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday 11 July) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Hisham Matar said: "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 and 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."
NoViolet 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 of English. Another of her stories, 'Snapshots', was shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN/Studzinski Literary Award. NoViolet has recently completed a novel manuscript tentatively titled We Need New Names, and has begun work on a memoir project.
Bulawayo was shortlisted for the award alongside Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda; "Butterfly dreams"), Tim Keegan (South Africa, "What Molly Knew"), Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana; "In the spirit of McPhineas Lata") and David Medalie (South Africa; "The Mistress's Dog"). She takes the Caine Prize baton from Olufemi Terry who won last year's prize for his story "Stickfighting Days".
The Chair of Judges, award-winning author Hisham Matar, announced NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday 11 July) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Hisham Matar said: "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 and 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."
NoViolet 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 of English. Another of her stories, 'Snapshots', was shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN/Studzinski Literary Award. NoViolet has recently completed a novel manuscript tentatively titled We Need New Names, and has begun work on a memoir project.
Bulawayo was shortlisted for the award alongside Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda; "Butterfly dreams"), Tim Keegan (South Africa, "What Molly Knew"), Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana; "In the spirit of McPhineas Lata") and David Medalie (South Africa; "The Mistress's Dog"). She takes the Caine Prize baton from Olufemi Terry who won last year's prize for his story "Stickfighting Days".
Source - book.co.za
