FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 June 2018
Dele Fatunla, who will take up his new post as Administrator of the Caine Prize for African Writing on 1 June 2018.
Dele Meiji Fatunla has been announced as the new Administrator of the Caine Prize for African Writing. He will take up the role on 1 June 2018.
Formerly Head of Communications at the Royal African Society, Dele will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Caine Prize, liaising with trustees, writers and key partners in Africa, the UK and the US. Working with publishers, schools, and literary and cultural organisations in Africa and around the world, Dele will play an important role in the efforts of the Caine Prize to promote contemporary African literature and African writers, and to develop emerging literary talent on the continent.
Chair of the Caine Prize, Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley, said: “I am delighted that Dele will be joining the Caine Prize. He brings huge administrative experience, having served at a senior level in communications at the Royal African Society. He has also been involved in human rights and contemporary African literature programmes for a number of years, and this insight will be a great asset to the Caine Prize as we continue to highlight and celebrate the diversity of African writing.”
Commenting on his appointment, Dele said: “I am honoured to be joining the Caine Prize, a wonderful and vital part of the ecosystem supporting African literature and cultural production in Africa and around the world. I’m looking forward to joining the team and working with the Chair, the Board of Trustees, Council members, and our partners to promote the growth of the vibrant African literary sector we see today.”
Dele, who has previously worked on projects with the British Council, as well as with Africa-focused publishers and magazines, will be in-post ahead of this year’s Caine Prize Award Dinner, held for the second time in partnership with SOAS, University of London. The winner will be announced at the ceremony on 2 July, with a live stream to be made available online.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
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 (indicative length 3,000 to 10,000 words). An African writer is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality.
The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee, are Patrons of The Caine Prize. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is President of the Council, Ben Okri OBE is Vice President, Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley is the Chair, and Adam Freudenheim is the Deputy Chairperson.
Previous winners are Sudan’s Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava
(2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010), Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo (2011), Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde (2012), Nigerian Tope Folarin (2013), Kenyan Okwiri Oduor (2014), Zambian Namwali Serpell (2015), and South African Lidudumalingani (2016); and Sudanese writer, Bushra al-Fadil (2017).
The five shortlisted stories, alongside stories written at the Caine Prize Writers’ Workshop held in Rwanda in March/April 2018, are will be published by New Internationalist (UK), Interlink Publishing (USA), Jacana Media (South Africa), Lantern Books (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Mkuki na Nyota (Tanzania), Redsea Cultural Foundation (Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE), Gadsden Publishers (Zambia) and Huza Press (Rwanda). Books are available from the publishers or from the Africa Book Centre, African Books Collective or Amazon. The 2018 anthology will be titled Redemption Song.
The Caine Prize is principally supported by The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Miles Morland Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, the Booker Prize Foundation, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League and John and Judy Niepold. Other funders and partners include, The British Council, Georgetown University (USA), The Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, The van Agtmael Family Charitable Fund, Rupert and Clare McCammon, Adam and Victoria Freudenheim, Arindam Bhattacherjee, Phillip Ihenacho and other generous donors.
For more information
Henry Gilliver
henry@raittorr.co.uk
020 7922 7719
Follow us on Twitter (@CainePrize), Facebook, Instagram, and visit our website: www.caineprize.com