Caine Prize holds its first writers' workshop.

The Caine Prize for African Writing held its first workshop for African writers near Cape Town last March. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, this was the first of a proposed series of workshops in Africa, bringing together writers from different African countries and of differing levels of achievement and recognition. The aim of the workshop was to enable writers from different African countries to meet and work alongside each other and to give young writers the opportunity to learn from such an experience.

The workshop was lead by Peter Merrington and Veronique Tadjo, who acted as 'animators'. Merrington teaches creative writing at the University of the Western Cape, while Tadjo, a writer of poetry, short stories, novels, reportage and children's stories, was a Caine Prize judge in 2000. The 12 participating writers were drawn from previous Caine Prize winners and short listed candidates as well as young unpublished writers from South Africa. Amongst the group were two winners, Binyavanga Wainaina, last year's winner from Kenya, and Helon Habila from Nigeria, winner in 2001.

During the workshop, it was announced that Habila had won a Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book for the African region, for Waiting for an Angel (see Book Reviews, African Business February 2003). The judges called it 'a layered and tender song to life and liberty'. Habila has enjoyed great success since winning the Caine Prize, including securing a two-book publishing contract and a residency at the University of East Anglia.

The stories written at the workshop will be published by Jacana (Johannesburg) in July, alongside the stories short listed for the Caine Prize in 2001.