Caine Prize

It's been a busy week ... much excitement as Stanley Kenani, a good friend from Malawi, arrived in London courtesy of the Caine Prize. His short story, For Honour, was shortlisted for this prestigious award - only 5 on the short list from 90 authors nominated by their publishers. I met Stanley for coffee and we discussed the Malawi Arts Festival. Back in 2004 Stanley approached me with the idea of an Arts festival for Malawi - it's taken several years, but here we are!

Sunday night saw me at the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, listening to all the short listed authors read from and discuss their work with Gary Younge. Wonderful to hear the true voices of Africa, gloriously rich and diverse, from Henrietta Rose-Innes' story from South Africa through the earthy humour of Nigerian Uzor Maxim Uzoatu to Stanley's painful dissection of a man's humiliation when his wife sleeps with another man in order to become pregnant. the stories are all available to read online at http://www.newint.org/publications/fiction/jambula-tree/ .

Back to the real world on Monday, and some great news: the French Cultural Centre are now officially on board as sponsors of MAF2009. So the great juggernaut is rolling on, gathering speed. A long conversation with Muthi Nhlema at British Council Malawi this morning thrashed out more details : the dates are now confirmed as 13th - 19th June 2009. So if you're planning on going to Grahamstown this year, why not come to Malawi first?

Tomorrow I am off to York, for the first meeting with Jack Mapanje and dramaturg, Neil Grutchfield, to kick-start the writing of Jack's first play. By the end of the day we will be much clearer about how the process will be organised, and what our goals are for the project. Last week I had a call from International PEN who are interested in the project ... early days, but it looks like it might create a bit of interest in international literary circles.