About the Prize
The Commonwealth Foundation established the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1987 to encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin.
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is genuinely international in its character and administration. In practice it consists of ten prizes. In four Commonwealth regions two prizes of £1,000 are given out : one for the Best Book and one for the Best First Book. The regional winners then go through to the final phase of the competition, where a distinguished pan-Commonwealth panel meets to decide the overall Commonwealth winners for Best Book and Best First Book. There will be one award of £10,000 for the Overall Best Book and one award of £5,000 for the Overall Best First Book.
The 2007 Overall winners are;
Best Book: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand)
Best First Book: Vandal Love by DY Bechard
