http://www.eastandard.net/eahome/story170720020019.htm
Kenyan writer wins top international prize
LONDON, Tuesday
A Kenyan journalist and short story writer Binyavanga Wainaina, yesterday won the $15,000 (about Sh1.3 million) Caine Prize for African Writing for his story, Discovering Home.
The 30-year-old Wainaina calls his winning story, creative non-fiction. Ahdaf Soueif, head of the judges panel, called it an accomplished and subtly imagined story. It shifts between different African locations with wit, wisdom and originality.
It is a brilliant augur of future work of the author, said Soueif.
The Caine Prize is awarded annually for African creative writing. Wainaina, speaking after the evening awards ceremony at Oxford Universitys Bodleian Library, called the prize a vindication.
There are a lot of Kenyan writers, he said. We had come to a point where we thought it was impossible to get read, and I think that if this means anything, it should be that young, young Kenyan writers should start writing, speaking out and seeing ourselves in our literature, which is what we are not doing right now.
You cant go into a Kenyan bookshop and see writing about your own issues, work with which to identify, he said.
The whole Kenyan literary industry needs to take a look at this, he said. We need to start developing writers and the young Kenyan experience.
Wainaina studied commerce at the University of Transkei, South Africa before moving to Cape Town, where he is a freelance food and travel writer. - AP
Kenyan wins African writing prize !!!!!! -
07-16-2002, 01:32 PM
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