4 Ghanaian writers on Cain Prize shortlist

Four young Ghanaian writers are among 11 African writers who have been shortlisted for the 2009 Cain Prize for African Writing which is worth £10,000.

The Cain Prize, which is named after Sir Michael Cain, a former chairman of the management committee of the prestigious Booker Prize, is awarded annually to a short story by an African writer and published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere.

This year's shortlisted writers com­prise the four Ghanaians, two Nigeri­ans, two Sierra Leoneans, two Zimbab­weans and one South African. This disclosure was made at a read­ing session held at the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) House in Accra last weekend.

The reading sessions were the final event in a series of workshops where the 11 shortlisted writers had been dis­cussing their work, learning from vet­eran writers and working on new, as well as existing story ideas.

The workshops and reading ses­sions were sponsored by Zain, a lead­ing emerging market player in the telecommunications industry in Africa and the Middle-East.

The Public Relations and Communications Manager of Zain, Mrs Car­men Bruce-Annan, said the telecom­munications company was "passionate about the arts and culture of the coun­tries where it operates".

She said patrons of the Cain Prize included all the four African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, namely, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz and John Coetzee.