Uncategorized | July 19, 2005

The Missouri Review tips its hat to Nigerian-born author, Segun A. Afolabi, who, earlier this month, won the Caine Prize for Literature, awarded annually to an African author for a single short story. The prize is named after Sir Michael Caine, the former head of the Man Booker Prize for Literature. During his lifetime, Caine displayed a great interest in Africa and its emerging authors. The Caine prize often attracts the interest of some of the continent’s leading emerging writers and is supported by patrons such as Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz, and J.M. Coetzee. Afolabi won the $15,000 prize for “Monday Morning,” a short story about refugees from an unspecified country, who struggle with the psychological repercussions of exile. A periodic reporter for the BBC, Afolabi considers himself a world citizen and hopes to reach a diverse audience of readers through his work. His extensive travels have taken him to numerous counties around the world including Congo, Canada, Indonesia and London. Afolabi plans to take a year off to work on his first novel, intended for print in 2007. A collection of his short stories is due to emerge this spring.