The Caine Prize for African Writing has announced Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner of the 2025 Best of Caine Award for her short story, “Hitting Budapest”, which originally won the Prize in 2011.
NoViolet Bulawayo is the author of the novels Glory, and We Need New Names. Her books have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Rathbones Folio Prize, and won the Pen/Hemingway Award, the LA Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among others. NoViolet earned her MFA at Cornell University, where she currently teaches.
Marking the Prize’s 25th anniversary, the Best of Caine Award is an honorary prize celebrating the most outstanding winning story from the Prize’s 25 year history. Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of the Caine Prize, announced NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner at the inaugural Words Across Waters Afro Lit Festival on Saturday, 27 September 2025.
This year’s judging panel, comprised of Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah (Chair); award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi; and critically acclaimed film producer Tony Tagoe.
Speaking on the winning story, Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah said:
“It was a tremendously impressive collection of stories to read through, but the decision to award the Best of Caine Prize to NoViolet Bulawayo was unanimous and swift. The judges were impressed with the control of voice the story demonstrated and the superb evocation of a childhood vision.”
Speaking on receiving the award, NoViolet Bulawayo said:
“I wish to thank the Caine Prize and the judging panel for this incredible honor. Winning the Caine Prize as an unpublished writer back in 2011 was truly the kind of defining highlight to jumpstart a career. It brought my work to a global audience, affirmed my literary path, and strengthened my confidence and commitment to writing so that finishing a first novel worthy of the recognition bestowed on me by Africa’s most prestigious literary award – my first ever recognition – was non-negotiable. Now, receiving the Best of Caine Award these many years later feels like a moment to reflect on the journey.
“I warmly congratulate the twenty-four remarkable winning authors and finalists whose works have helped define the prize up to this moment. That many have gone on to build distinguished careers, producing diverse and influential works that continue to challenge, expand, enrich, and reimagine what African literature can be, speaks to the indelible impact of the prize. It is twenty-five years of consistency, excellence, and vision – our present is vibrant, and the future promises even more. And it is to the future writers still to come, those whose voices we are yet to hear, that I dedicate this Best of Caine Award—I am truly excited to read you all, and witnessing how you continue to shape the landscape of African literature.”
The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity that aims to bring African writing to a wider audience using its annual literary award. In addition to administering the Prize, the charity works to connect readers with African writers through a series of public events. It also helps emerging writers across the continent to enter the world of mainstream publishing through the annual online editing programme, and writer’s workshop which takes place in a different African country each year.
The stories written at Caine Prize workshops are published annually alongside the Prize’s shortlisted stories in a Caine Prize Anthology by Cassava Republic Press in the UK and publishers on the African continent.
It is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc, who was Chairman of the ‘Africa 95’ arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995 and for nearly 25 years, Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. After his death, friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of £10,000 to be awarded annually in his memory.
The Caine Prize for African Writing has played a pivotal role in shaping the careers of African writers, offering unmatched global visibility and opportunities, including publishing deals and writing fellowships.
Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim
Ibrahim is a Nigerian writer and editor currently based in the UK. He won the Creative Future Writers’ Awards, the Quramo Writers' Prize, and received support from the Jessica George Bursary. His work has been selected for Best Small Fictions anthology, and has been a finalist for Faber Children's FAB Prize, Miles Morland Writing Scholarship, a Masters Review anthology prize, and twice for Moon City Short Fiction Award. He has also been longlisted for Commonwealth Short Story Prize, CRAFT Short Story Prize, Laura Kinsella Fellowship, and Dzanc Diverse Voices Prize. He has multiple nominations for both the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. Among other things, he is currently the Editor of JAY Lit. He’s @heemthewriter on Twitter and Facebook, and @writtenbyheem on Instagram and Threads. More about Ibrahim can be found at www.heemthewriter.com
