Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley has been included in the 2018 Powerlist, which honours the most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the UK. Her inclusion recognises the significance of her appointment as the first African Chair of the Caine Prize for African Writing. The Powerlist is published annually by Powerful Media, and was this year announced at an “influencers dinner” at Draper’s Hall, London.

Bushra al-Fadil has won the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for his short story entitled “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away”, translated by Max Shmookler, with support from Najlaa Osman Eltom published in The Book of Khartoum - A City in Short Fiction (Comma Press, UK. 2016). The Chair of Judges, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, announced Bushra al-Fadil as the winner of the £10,000 prize at an award dinner this evening (Monday, 3 July) held for the first time in Senate House, London, in partnership with SOAS as part of their centenary celebrations. As a translated story, the prize money will be split – with £7,000 going to Bushra and £3,000 to the translator, Max Shmookler.

The fifteenth annual Caine Prize workshop is being held in Tanzania for the first time, and the 2017 anthology of short stories, 12 of which are written during the workshop, will be co-published by Tanzanian Company Mkuki na Nyota, in partnership with New Internationalist - who provide a print-ready pdf to African co-publishers free of charge. Mkuki Bgoya has been commissioned to design the cover of the anthology, which in 2017 will be co-published in 16 African countries, including Rwanda for the first time, with Huza Press. In addition the Redsea Cultural Foundation will co-publish the anthology in Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and UAE.

In its eighteenth year, the Caine Prize for African Writing has received 148 qualifying short stories from 22 African countries, bringing the total number of eligible submissions since the inception of the Prize to over 1,600 from 47 African countries.

The 2017 judges, who were announced at the end of last year, will meet in mid May to decide on the 5 shortlisted stories. Each shortlisted writer will be awarded £500, with the eventual winner awarded a £10,000 prize.

The Council of the Caine Prize for African Writing pays tribute to Buchi Emecheta, a long-standing member of the Caine Prize Advisory Council, who died peacefully at her home in London on 25 January 2017, aged 72.

The Caine Prize for African Writing has announced the five judges for the 2017 Prize. The panel will be chaired by Nii Ayikwei Parkes, award winning author, poet and editor. He will be joined by the 2007 Caine Prize winner, Monica Arac de Nyeko; accomplished author and Chair of the English Department at Georgetown University, Professor Ricardo Ortiz; Libyan author and human rights campaigner, Ghazi Gheblawi; and distinguished African literary scholar, Dr Ranka Primorac.