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The shortlist for the £10,000 Caine Prize includes stories by authors from Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The five stories on the shortlist, which looks to reward the best of short African fiction published worldwide, are "Bombay's Republic" by Rotimi Babatunde, first published in Mirabilia Review; "Urban Zoning" by Billy Kahoa, published in McSweeney's; "Love on Trial" by Stanley Kenani, published in For Honour and Other Stories (eKhaya/Random House Struik); "La Salle de Depart" by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo from online journal "Prick of the Spindle", and "Hunter Emmanuel" by Constance Myburgh from magazine Jungle Jim. The judges received 122 entries from 14 countries.
The winner will be announced at a dinner in Oxford on 2nd July, with the judging panel comprised of chair Bernardine Evaristo (pictured), fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; cultural journalist Maya Jaggi; Zimbabwean poet, songwriter and writer Chirikure Chirikure; associate professor at Georgetown University, Samantha Pinto, and Sudanese CNN television correspondent Nima Elbagir. The winner will also have the opportunity to take up a month's residence at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and to take part in the Open Book Festival in Cape Town in September 2012, and events at the Museum of African Art in New York in November 2012.
Evaristo said: "I’m proud to announce that this shortlist shows the range of African fiction beyond the more stereotypical narratives. These stories have an originality and facility with language that made them stand out."