The 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize judges:
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- Bernardine Evaristo (Chair)
- Bernardine Evaristo is the author of six books including: Hello Mum, a novella (Penguin 2010); Lara, a verse novel (Bloodaxe Books 2009); Blonde Roots, a novel (Penguin 2008); Soul Tourists, a novel-with-verse (Penguin, 2005); The Emperor’s Babe, a verse novel (Penguin 2001). She co-edited poetry anthology Ten, with Daljit Nagra (Bloodaxe 2010); Wasafiri – Black Britain: Beyond Definition with Karen McCarthy Woolf (Routledge 2010), and the British Council anthology NW15 (Granta 2007) with Maggie Gee. She has taught creative writing worldwide and is Reader in Creative Writing at Brunel University. Her book reviews appear in the Times, Guardian, Independent and Financial Times and she has written for theatre and BBC radio. She has received and judged several literary awards, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts and she was made an MBE in 2009.
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- Urvashi Butalia
Urvashi Butalia is a writer and publisher. Co-founder of India’s first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, she is now the director of Zubaan Books, which is an imprint of Kali. She co-edited In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women (1994) and her books include Making a Difference: Feminist Publishing in the South (1995), Women and Right Wing Movements: Indian Experiences (1995), and Speaking Peace: Women’s Voices from Kashmir (2002). In 1998 she wrote the award-winning The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Her writing has also appeared in several newspapers including The Guardian, The Statesman, The Times of India and several magazines including Outlook, the New Internationalist and India Today. She is currently working on several books: a reader on India’s history, culture and politics, a family memoir about Partition and a book on sexuality and citizenship as seen through the eyes of a eunuch. She lives and works in Delhi.
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- Craig Cliff
- Craig Cliff is the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Winner for Best First Book for A Man Melting. Craig Cliff was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1983. A graduate of Victoria University’s MA in creative writing, his short stories and poetry have been published in New Zealand and Australia. His short story Another Language won the novice section of the 2007 BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards. In Another Language Cliff explores a young narrator’s connection to his Serbian grandfather, his friendship with a Maori boy and the act of stuttering. His first published collection of short stories, A Man Melting, gathers together his prize-winning and published short stories, as well as some new works. These 18 stories examine all of the big questions of life – birth, infancy, adolescence, violence, parenthood, death. The characters in these stories look for ways to reconnect with people and the world around them whilst Cliff examines complex issues such as alienation and belonging. Both The Listener and Sunday Star Times have included A Man Melting within their best books of 2010. Craig Cliff lives in Wellington, New Zealand and works for the government.
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- Billy Kahora
Billy Kahora is the Managing Editor of the Kenyan literary journal Kwani?. He has edited five issues of Kwani and numerous Kwani Trust publications including Kenya Burning and Nairobi 24. He is also an Associate Editor of the Chimurenga Chronic, www.chimurenganewssroom.org.za
. His writings have been published in Granta Online, McSweeneys, Internazionale, Kwani?, Chimurenga and Vanity Fair. His short story, Treadmill Love, was highly commended by the 2007 Caine Prize judges. He has written one book of creative nonfiction, The True Story of David Munyakei (2009), as well as the scripts for the 2010 film Soul Boy (dir Tom Tykver) and Nairobi Half Life (release Feb 2012). He is working on a novel titled, The Applications and is also part of the Pilgrimages Project and is writing a book on Juba. Billy Kahora completed a residency at the Iowa International Writers Program in 2010, is a Chevening Scholar and has an M.Sc in Creative Writing from University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was one of the judges for the 2007 Africa Region Commonwealth Prize.
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- Nicholas Laughlin
- Nicholas Laughlin is the editor of The Caribbean Review of Books, programme director of the Bocas Lit Fest and a writer with a particular interest in Caribbean literature, art and culture. His reviews, essays, and poems have appeared in a number of journals and books. He is also a director of Alice Yard, a contemporary arts space and collaborative based in Port of Spain. He was born and has always lived in Trinidad.
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- Lisa Moore
Lisa Moore lives in St. Johns, New Foundland. Lisa has written two collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness and Open, and two novels, Alligator and February. She has edited The Penguin Anthology of Canadian Short Fiction by Women, and co-edited Great Expectations: 24 True Stories about Birth by Canadian Authors, along with Dede Crane. Open and Alligator were shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and Alligator won the Commonwealth Prize for the Canadian and Caribbean Region, and was long-listed for the Orange Prize. February and Open were short-listed for the Winterset Award, and February was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Lisa’s work has been translated into five languages and she is currently adapting February for the stage. She has written for Chatelaine, Elle Magazine, The Walrus and the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and the National Post and Canadian Art. She has also written for radio and television. She teaches drama to elementary school children in St. John’s and Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia’s online Master Program in Creative Writing.
