There was
jubilation in Nigeria’s literary world when a US-based Nigerian writer, Tope
Folarin, was awarded the 2013 prestigious Caine Prize for African writing.
He
received the £10,000 ($15,000) prize for his short story Miracle, which is set
in an evangelical Nigerian church in Texas, United States of America. The
book’s plot raced through a congregation that gathers at a church to witness
the healing powers of a blind pastor-prophet.
According
to BBC, he was among five writers short-listed for the prize, regarded as Africa’s
leading literary award. Three other Nigerians were short-listed namely Elnathan
John for Bayan Layi, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim for The Whispering Trees and Chinelo
Okparanta for America.
Judges
for the award described it as a “delightful and beautifully paced narrative”.
Sierra
Leone’s Pede Hollist was the only non-Nigerian short-listed for his short story
Foreign Aid.
Rotimi
Babatunde won last year’s Caine Prize for African writing for his story
Bombay’s Republic which tells a story about Nigerian soldiers who fought in the
Burma campaign during World War II.
Folarin lives and works in Washington, DC. He
was educated at Morehouse College, and the University of Oxford, where he
earned two Master’s degrees as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a recipient of writing
fellowships from the Institute for Policy Studies and Callaloo. He serves on
the board of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
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