Geographic Shift in PEN/SA Fiction Award

The 2011 PEN/Studzinksy award shifted from covering the whole of Africa and it is now open only to writers from SADC countries. As I pointed out in the post about Penquin African Writers' Series (PAWS), sponsors and publishers of African writers are free to map things as they see fit. So while debates might arise in reponse to this shift, it is important to remember that the power to decide belongs to PEN/SA.
The SADC comprises these countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The £10 000 2011 PEN/Studzinsky Literary Awards are judged by JM Coetzee.The winner of the inaugural PEN/Studzinksy award was Karen Jayes, who received the £5 000 first prize at the 2009 Franschhoek Literary Festival. Andrew Salomon took the £3 000 second prize, while Ceridwen Dovey and Nadia Davids shared the £2 000 third prize.

Perhaps this geographic shift will encourage more SADC writers to enter the contest.

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