The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation and supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation. The Prize aims to reward the best of cutting-edge Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience, thereby increasing appreciation of and building understanding between cultures.
The Prize is fully international in its character, administration and judging. Now in its 23rd year, the Prize selects a Best Book and Best First Book from four regions: Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia; and South East Asia and Pacific. The resulting eight regional winners go through to the final phase of the competition, where an international panel will decide the Commonwealth winners of the Best Book and Best First Book. The two overall winners will be announced in Auckland at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Awards Ceremony on Saturday 16 May from 7.30pm at the Aotea Centre.
For more information on the Prize, click here...
The Commonwealth Foundation congratulates the 2009 regional winners and welcomes them to New Zealand to participate in the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.
Africa
Mandla Langa: The Lost Colours of the Chameleon
Uwem Akpan: Say You're One of Them
Canada and the Caribbean
Marina Endicott: Good to a Fault
Joan Thomas: Reading by Lightning
Europe and South Asia
Jhumpa Lahiri: Unaccustomed Earth
Mohammed Hanif: A Case of Exploding Mangoes
South East Asia and Pacific
Christos Tsiolkas: The Slap
Mo Zhi Hong: The Year of the Shanghai Shark
