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Who will be the next Lloyd Jones? : 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize open for entry
The 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize is now open for entry. The Prize aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a wider audience. Publishers are invited to make entries online or by completing an entry form and sending it with three copies of each book to the appropriate regional chairperson and one copy to the Commonwealth Foundation Awarded annually, this major prize for fiction is fully international in its character, administration and judging. The Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and the South Pacific.
Books entered for the Prize will first be assessed by the regional panels and shortlists will be announced in February 2008. In each of the four regions, two prizes of £1,000 will be awarded in March 2008: one for the Best Book and one for the Best First Book. The eight regional winning books will then be sent to the Pan-Commonwealth panel of judges which will meet during the final programme of the Prize in May 2008, which will culminate in the announcement of the overall Best Book and Best First Book.
In a unique aspect of the Prize, the eight regional prize winners will be invited to take part in a series of readings and other public activities alongside the judging. This year those activities will take place, for the first time, in South Africa.
This year the Prize welcomes on board two new regional chairs in the Canada and Caribbean and Europe and South Asia regions: Professor Michael Bucknor of the University of West Indies, Jamaica and Professor Makarand Paranjape of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Arthur Gakwandi (Kampala, Uganda) and Dr Christine Prentice (Otago, New Zealand) will be serving their second years as Chairs for the Africa and South East Asia and South Pacific regions, respectively.
Any work of prose fiction published in English by a citizen of a Commonwealth country during 2007 is eligible for the Prize, with the exception of books written for children alone, drama or poetry. The author of the overall Best Book is awarded a cash prize of £10,000 and the author of the overall Best First Book wins £5,000. In addition, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, has since the inception of the Prize invited the winner of overall Best Book to attend an audience.
The Prize is now in its 22nd year. It is funded and organised by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Foundation. The Chair of the Prize is Justice Nicholas Hasluck, distinguished Australian author and leading judicial officer.
The Prize winners will follow in the footsteps of recent winners such as Kate Grenville, Andrea Levy, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Caryl Phillips. The overall 2007 best book winner was New Zealander Lloyd Jones with Mister Pip, with D Y Béchard of Canada winning overall best first book for Vandal Love.
Please click here to view the full entry rules for the Prize before submitting books. For more information about the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, please contact Jennifer Sobol at j.sobol@commonwealth.int.
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