NoViolet Bulawayo has won a Cane Prize
A Zimbabwean writer has been awarded with this year's Cane Prize and £10,000 for her short story "Hitting Budapest".
The story describes a group of six starving children from a shanty town, one of whom is a ten-year-old pregnant girl, and their trips to a rich area to steal guavas.
"I just want to go home and dance! I'm seriously excited. The Caine Prize is a big prize and I can't express my happiness enough," the author said in excitement at the award-winning dinner at Oxford University.
"The language of Hitting Budapest crackles. Here we encounter Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho, a gang reminiscent of 'Clockwork Orange.' But these are children, poor and violated and hungry. This is a story with moral power and weight (yet) has the artistry to refrain from moral commentary," stated Hisham Matar – a Libyan author and a jury member – clarifying why Bulawayo had been chosen over four other shortlisted writers.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo has recently completed her MFA at Cornell University in America, where she works as a teacher. "I miss home. I want to go and write from home. It's a place which inspires me. I don't feel inspired by America at all," the author stressed. "I'm interested in what happens when two different worlds meet in a problematic way, I'm interested in honesty and in violence. These are real issues and real things," she added.
The Caine Prize has become almost an unmistakable system unearthing new African talent. Being shortlisted is often enough to catapult African authors to international popularity, as it has been evidenced by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie.
Previous winners such as Leila Aboulela, Helon Habila and Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina have gone on to publish critically acclaimed works, as well as further the cause of writing in their respective countries.
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