Final Programme
The overall Best Book and Best First Book winners
of the 22nd Commonwealth Writers' Prize will be
announced on18 May 2008 at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize final programme is a week long series of events culminating in the announcement of the two overall winners. The final programme is unique in that it brings together the eight regional winners and judges to partake in various events, activities and celebrations while sharing their winning novels with other writers and communities.
The final programme is rotated around the Commonwealth and held in a different location each year. This year, for the first time, the final programme is being held in South Africa in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa, and the Franschhoek Literary Festival.
The week's programme will include a series of public and community-oriented events in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, before culminating in the announcement of the overall Best Book and Best First Book winners in a special ceremony as part of the 2008 Franschhoek Literary Festival, in the Cape Winelands District, on Sunday 18 May.
In recent years, the programme has taken place in New Delhi, India (2000), Accra, Ghana (2001), Edinburgh, UK (2002), Calgary, Canada (2003), Melbourne, Australia (2004), Valletta, Malta (2005) , and again in Melbourne, Australia (2006), to coincide with the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and in Kingston and Treasure Beach, Jamaica (2007).
