LONDON – Professor Michael Bucknor of the University of West Indies, Mona is the new chair of the Canada and Caribbean region for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Professor Bucknor is one of two new regional chairs for the award, with the other being Professor Makarand Paranjape of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India for Europe and South Asia.
In the meantime, entries are now open for the 22nd annual prize, which aims to reward the best fiction by both established and new writers from the Commonwealth regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe and South Asia, and South East Asia and the South Pacific, and to take their works to a wider audience.
According to a release from the Commonwealth Foundation, books entered for the award 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, who 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.
The author of the overall Best Book will be awarded a cash prize of £10,000 and the author of the overall Best First Book wins £5,000.
In a unique aspect of the 2008 prize, the eight regional 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.
The winner of the 21st Commonwealth Writers’ Prize was announced in Jamaica in May of this year at the Calabash International Literary Festival. In 2006, Jamaican author Marlon James was short-listed for the Best First Book award.
In addition, Her Majesty The Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, has, since the inception of the prize, invited the winner of the overall Best Book to attend an audience.
The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is funded and organized by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Foundation.
