Next week, ROSL will see the arrival of this year's shortlisted writers for the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing. To celebrate their stay at the club, on Thursday 4 July the authors will take part in an event which combines musical performances along with readings of their shortlisted works.
The prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally. The focus on the short story reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition. ROSL is delighted to have supported the Caine Prize since its founding, providing accommodation for the writers when staying in London.
On Thursday, each author will read from their works, with the duo of Jonathan Radford saxophone and South African pianist Ben Schoeman, both former winners at the ROSL Annual Music Competition, performing alongside them. Book tickets here to come along to this unique event, which showcases the future stars of African writing.
And don't forget, you still have a chance to vote for the ROSL Readers' Award, which will be presented to one of the writers at next week's events.
Launched in 2018, this award asks ROSL members to read each of the short stories listed for the main Caine Prize and vote for their favourite. The winner of this award receives £1,000 and is then commissioned to write an original short story, which appears in a future edition of the Overseas journal.
Last year, it was Malaysia-based Nigerian writer Wole Talabi who took home the award. His short story, Debut, which explored the future of art and artificial intelligence, appeared in the March-May 2019 edition of Overseas. You can read his work here.
The response from members was fantastic, and we hope as many people as possible will get involved this year as well. A new crop of writers have already been shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize, their works can be read below:
Lesley Nneka Arimah, Skinned
Meron Hadero, The Wall
Cherrie Kandie, Sew My Mouth
Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti, It Takes A Village Some Say
Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor, All Our Lives
Click here to cast your Vote for the ROSL Readers' Award 2019
You have until 3 July to vote, so get reading! If you would prefer a hard copy of the stories, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
