Young Black Woman From South Africa Wins the Caine Prize for African Writing

Mary Watson, a 31-year-old black South African, has been awarded the Caine Prize for African writing. The award, named after Sir Michael Caine, the former chair of Booker PLC, the large British conglomerate, is given to promising writers from Africa. Watson won the competition against more than 100 entrants from 21 nations. Her winning work was the short story Jungfrau, which relates a family’s struggles under the South African apartheid regime through the eyes of a young girl.

The Caine Prize comes with a cash award of £10,000. Watson lives in Cape Town and is currently working on her first novel.

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