February 04, 2003, 09:15
The judging panel for the Africa Region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize will meet in South Africa for the first time ever. The panel will be chaired by Andries Oliphant, a poet, fiction writer, publisher and arts and culture policy developer from the University of South Africa.
Oliphant will be joined by Ayeta Wangusa, a Ugandan journalist and writer. and Mary Kolawole, a professor of African Literature and Women's Studies from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.
"As one of the most important prizes for fiction in Africa, we are delighted to welcome the regional judging of the Commonwealth Writers Prize here for the first time in its 17-year history," said Oliphant
The panel will meet in Johannesburg at the end of this month to decide the Best Book and Best First Book in the region.
Previous African winners in the Commonwealth Writers Prize include, Nobel Literature Laureate Nadine Gordimer, Charles Mungoshi, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Festus Iyayi and JM Coetzee, who has won the Booker Prize twice.
The Commonwealth Writers Prize, established in 1987, is sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation, administered by Booktrust and supported by Cumberland Lodge.
|
|
