Image: Delia Jarrett-Macauley with 2016 Caine Prize winner Lidudumalingani

Delia Jarrett-Macauley, the first African Chair of the Caine Prize, has been included on the 2018 Powerlist, which honours the most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom.

Jarrett-Macauley, the youngest daughter of Sierra Leonean parents, is a novelist, biographer, academic and broadcaster. Her first novel, Moses, Citizen & Me, received the 2005 Orwell Prize for political writing.

The Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English. The prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally. The winner of the 2017 prize was Bushra al-Fadil of Sudan.

From the Caine Prize:

Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley’s inclusion recognises the significance of her appointment as the African Chair of the Caine Prize.

The Powerlist is published annually by Powerful Media, and was this year announced at an ‘influencers dinner’ at Draper’s Hall, London.

The award comes at an exciting time for The Caine Prize, which is to embark on a series of new outreach activities to encourage greater awareness of, and participation with, African fiction. In 2018 the Prize will launch an online editing scheme, providing a valuable resource for African writers who stand to gain from the experience of accomplished writers from around the world. At the same time, the Caine Prize will be engaging in more work in the US as part of a programme designed to re-energise the ways we talk about contemporary African fiction. More details to be announced in due course.

Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley was recently interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, where she discussed the life of Una Marson, the broadcaster and activist who was the BBC’s first black programmer. The interview is available here (from 50 minutes).

Commenting, Delia said, ‘It’s right that the significance of the Caine Prize appointing its first African chair is recognised, and I hope my inclusion on the 2018 Powerlist will help raise the profile of the organisation. I am looking forward to continuing the work of my predecessor as custodian of the Caine Prize, while also taking it in my own direction. In launching a new online editing service for African authors and expanding our work in the USA, a renewed emphasis will be placed on reaching out to the literary community, for the benefit of both writers and consumers of African fiction.’

In December the Caine Prize will announce its panel of judges for 2018, and the award dinner will be held in London for the second time. The deadline for submissions to the 2018 Prize is 31 January. Publishers are encouraged to submit qualifying stories in good time. Submissions are welcome year round and late submissions will be entered in to the competition for the following year.

Ends

Categories Africa Fiction International

Tags African Fiction African Writing Caine Prize Citizen & Me Delia Jarrett-Macauley Moses News