Nigeria's Tope Folarin Wins 14th Caine Prize

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin Wins 2013 Caine Prize

By Sola Njoku

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin has been awarded the 14th Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, 'Miracle'.

The announcement was made yesterday, July 8, at a ceremony held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK.

Announcing the recipient of the award and $10,000 prize money, the Chair of Judges, Gus Caseley-Hayford said, ‘Tope Folarin's “Miracle” is another superb Caine Prize winner — a delightful and beautifully paced narrative that is exquisitely observed and utterly compelling’.

First published in Transition magazine, a Harvard University publication, ‘Miracle’ is an excerpt from Folarin’s forthcoming novel, The Proximity of Distance.

In ‘Miracle’, a young bespectacled boy offers himself up for healing when a Nigerian evangelist visits Texas. Initially doubtful of the evangelist’s professed powers, he soon begins to flirt with faith under the ministrations of the evangelist and congregation. Scepticism, gullibility, hope and society’s perpetuation of religious ideals all come to play.

Tope Folarin was born in America of Nigerian parents and was educated at the University of Oxford. He lives in Washington DC.

Others nominees for the prize were Chinelo Okparanta, Elnathan John, Abubakar Ibrahim and Pede Hollist.