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The Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Europe and South Asia, The Caribbean and Canada, and South East Asia and the South Pacific. In Each of the four regions two prizes of £1,000 are awarded for the Best Book and for the Best First Book. Eight regional winners’ books are then judged by the A pan-Commonwealth panel. Authors win £10,000 for the overall Best Book and £5,000 for the Best First Book. Writers and judges come together in a final literary programme in a different Commonwealth country each year.

May 18--- Lawrence Hill (left) has won the top Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Someone Knows My Name: A Novel. The book' is written in the voice of an 18th-century West African named Aminata Diallo who is abducted from her village as an 11-year-old girl, becomes a slave in South Carolina, wins her freedom during the American Revolutionary War and finds her way back to Sierra Leone. Lawrence Hill's third novel was published in 2007 as The Book of Negroes in Canada (HarperCollins) and is known as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, the UK and Australia.
The book had previously won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canada and the Caribbean region) and the 2007 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. A #1 Canadian Bestseller, it was named one of the top 100 books of 2007 by The Globe and Mail. In the United States, Amazon.com listed Someone Knows My Name as one of top 100 books of the year.
The Canadian author received a 10,000-pound ($19,600 US) check for the Overall Best Book Award from South African Minister of Arts and Culture Z. Pallo Jordan in a ceremony today at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.
Tahmima Anam (below right) of Bangladesh won the 5,000-pound Overall Best First Book prize for A Golden Age, a fictionalised account of her country's war for independence in 1971.

Held each year by the intergovernmental Commonwealth Foundation, the contest aims to reward the best fiction written in English in the 53-member Commonwealth. The prize is meant to give the winners a global audience and to build understanding between cultures.
The contest is supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia's largest investment bank.
The Regional winners for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award and Best First Book Award have been announced. Four international judging panels in each Commonwealth region; Africa
; Canada and the Caribbean, Europe and South Asia; and South East Asia and South Pacific have chos
en the following books in each region from an impressive list of 320 entries.
The 2007 Man Booker Prize shortlisted, Indra Sinha's (left) Animal's People, has won Best Book for the Europe and East Asia section of the 2008 years Commonwealth Writers Prize. A Golden Age from the enigmatic Bangladeshi author Tahmima Anam , won the Best First Book in the region ahead of 2007 Costa Best First Novel Winner, What Was Lost
from former postie, Catherine O' Flynn.
Nigerian Sade Adeniran's clever character driven book, Imagine This, won the African regions Best book with Best First Book going to fellow Nigerian, Karen King-Aribisala, for The Hangman's Game.
The Canada and Caribbean Best Book was won by Canadian Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name: A Novel (Book of Negroes in Canada)
Harper Collins Publishers and the Best First Book by another Canadian. CS Richardson's The End of the Alphabet ) the previous two titles are not available in the UK at present so links are to Amazon in Canada).
The winners from Australia and the South Pacific s Best Book region are not, too the best of my knowledge, available yet in the UK. Those wanting a copy of Steven Carrol's excellent The Time We Have Taken, (Harper Collins) or Best First Book, Karen Foxlee's', The Anatomy of Wings (University of Queensland Press) should arrange a holiday down under to purchase a copy. The Time We Have Taken, is shortlisted for Australia's prestigious 2008 Miles Franklin and The Anatomy of Wings, won the 2006 Queensland Premier Prize for Best Emerging Manuscript- now fully emerged I guess. KJP
Shortlisted books below.
Best Book: Karen King-Aribisala (Nigeria) The Hangman's Game Peepal Tree Press
Best First Book: Sade Adeniran (Nigeria) Imagine This SW Books
Canada and Caribbean (the 2 books regional winners are not currently available in UK so the links are to Amazon in Canada)
Best Book: Lawrence Hill (Canada)Someone Knows My Name: A Novel(Book of Negroes in Canada) Harper Collins Publishers
Best First Book: The End of the Alphabet CS Richardson (Canada) Doubleday Canada
Europe and South Asia
Best Book: Indra Sinha (India) Animal's People Simon and Schuster
Best First Book: Tahmima Anam (Bangladesh) A Golden Age John Murray
South East Asia and South Pacific
Best Book: Steven Carroll (Australia) The Time We Have Taken Harper Collins
Best First Book: Karen Foxlee (Australia) The Anatomy of Wings University of Queensland Press
AFRICA
Best Book
Barbara Adair (South Africa) End Jacana Media
Ifeoma Chinwuba (Nigeria) Waiting for Maria Spectrum Books
Finuala Dowling(South Africa) Flyleaf Penguin Books SA
Karen King-Aribisala (Nigeria) The Hangman's Game Peepal Tree Press
Susan Mann (South Africa ) Quarter Tones Harvill Secker
Zakes Mda (South Africa) Cion Penguin Books SA
Best First Book
Sade Adeniran (Nigeria ) Imagine This SW Books
Ceridwen Dovey (South Africa) Blood Kin Penguin Books SA
Dayo Forster (Gambia) Reading the CeilingSimon and Schuster
Ken Kamoche (Kenya) A Fragile Hope (Salt Modern Fiction) Salt Publishing
Sumayya Lee (South Africa) The Story of Maha South Africa Kwela Books
Carel van der Merwe (South Africa) No Man's Land Umuzi
CANADA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Best Book
Gil Adamson (Canada) The Outlander House of Anansi Press
Erna Brodber (Jamaica) The Rainmaker's Mistake New Beacon Books
Lawrence Hill (Canada) Someone Knows My Name: A Novel (The Book of Negroes in Canda) HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Robert Hough (Canada) The Culprits Canada Random House Canada
Frances Itani (Canada) Remembering the Bones HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Michael Ondaatje (Canada) Divisadero Bloomsbury Publishing/ McClelland & Stewart
Best First Book
David Chariandy (Canada) Soucouyant Arsenal Pulp Press
Tish Cohen (Canada) Town House HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Arley McNeney (Canada) Post Thistledown Press
Ameen Merchant (Canada) The Silent Raga Douglas & McIntyre
C.S. Richardson (Canada) The End of the Alphabet Doubleday Canada
Neil Smith (Canada) Bang Crunch Knopf Canada
EUROPE AND SOUTH ASIA
Best Book
David Davidar (India )The Solitude Of Emperors Weidenfeld & Nicholson
Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)The Reluctant Fundamentalist Viking, Penguin Books India PVT Ltd/Hamish Hamilton
Usha K.R. (India) Girl and a River, A Penguin Books India PVT Ltd
Hari Kunzru (UK) My RevolutionsHamish Hamilton
Nicholas Shakespeare (UK) Secrets of the Sea Harvill Secker
Indra Sinha (India ) Animal's People Simon and Schuster
Best First Book
Tahmima Anam (Bangladesh) A Golden Age John Murray
Priya Basil (UK) Ishq and Mushq Transworld Publishers
Shandana Minhas (UK) Tunnel Vision Roli Books
Catherine O'Flynn (left) (UK) What Was Lost Tindal Street Press
Jeremy Page (UK) Salt Viking, Penguin
JM Shaw (UK) The Illumination of Merton Browne Sceptre
SOUTH EAST ASIA AND SOUTH PACIFIC
Best Book Award
Steven Carroll (Australia) The Time We Have Taken HarperCollins
Sonya Hartnett (Australia) The Ghost's ChildPenguin Australia
Sarah Hopkins (Australia) The Crimes of Billy Fish ABC Books
Mireille Juchau (Australia) Burning In Giramondo
Michelle De Kretser (Australia) The Lost Dog Allen & Unwin
Alex Miller (Australia) Landscape of Farewell Allen & Unwin
Best First Book Award
Steven Conte (Australia) The Zookeepers War Australia Harper Collins
Karen Foxlee (Australia) The Anatomy of Wings Australia UQP
Sara Knox (Australia) The Orphan Gunner Giramondo
Carol Lefevre (Australia) Nights in the Asylum Picador
Marcella Polain (Australia) The Edge of the World Fremantle Press
Stephen Scourfield (Australia) Other Country Allen & Unwin
2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award
Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones- left (New Zealand), Penguin
2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book Award
Vandal Love, by D.Y. Bechard (Canada), Doubleday
2007 Regional Winners
Africa
Best Book: The Native Commissioner: A Novel , by Shaun Johnson (South Africa), Penguin Books
Best First Book: All We Have Left Unsaid, by Maxine Case (South Africa), Kwela Books
Canada and the Caribbean
Best Book: The Friends of Meager Fortune, by David Adams Richards (Canada), Doubleday Canada
Best First Book: Vandal Love, by D.Y. Bechard (Canada), Doubleday
Europe and South Asia
Best Book: The Perfect Man, by Naeem Murr (UK), Heinemann
Best First Book: In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar (UK), Viking
South East Asia and South Pacific
Best Book: Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand), Penguin
Best First Book: Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor (Australia), Allen and Unwin
2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Shortlists
Africa
Best Book

The Native Commissioner: A Novel, by Shaun Johnson - photo right (South Africa), Penguin Books
What Kind of Child , by Ken Barris (South Africa), Kwela Books
Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Harper Collins
Wizard of the Crow, by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kenya), Random House UK
Playing in the Light: A Novel, by Zoe Wicomb (South Africa), Umuzi
Song of the Atman , by Ronnie Govender (South Africa), Jacana
Best First Book
All We Have Left Unsaid, by Maxime Case (South Africa), Kwela Books
Ice in the Lungs, by Gerald Kraak (South Africa), Jacana
A Life Elsewhere, by Segun Afolabi (Nigeria), Jonathan Cape
Room 207, by Kgebeti Moele (South Africa), Kwela Books
The Beggar's Sign Writer, by Louis Greenberg (South Africa), Umuzi
The Shadow Follows, by David Medalie (South Africa), Picador Africa
Canada and the Caribbean
Best Book
The Law Of Dreams, by Peter Behrens (Canada), House of Anansi Press
Chutney Power and Other Stories (Macmillan Caribbean Writers), by Willi Chen (Trinidad), Macmillan Caribbean
Fabrizio's Return, by Mark Frutkin (Canada), Knopf Canada
The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud (Canada), Picador
The Unfortunate Marriage of Azeb Yitades, by Nega Mezlekia (Canada), Penguin Group (Canada)
The View from Castle Rock, by Alice Munro (Canada), Chatto and Windus
The Friends of Meager Fortune, by David Adams Richards (Canada), Doubleday Canada
Back to top
Best First Book
Baby Khaki's Wings, by Anar Ali (Canada), Viking
Vandal Love, by D.Y. Bechard (Canada), Doubleday
De Niro's Game, by Rawi Hage (Canada), House of Anansi Press
Fear of Stones and Other Stories (Macmillan Caribbean Writers), by Kei Miller (Jamaica), Macmillan Caribbean
Indigenous Beasts, by Nathan Sellyn (Canada), Raincoast Books
The Hour of Bad Decisions, by Russell Wangersky (Canada), Coteau Books
Europe and South Asia
Best Book

Sacred Games, by Vikram Chandra (India), Penguin
Miss Webster and Cherif, by Patricia Duncker (UK), Bloomsbury
The Sweet and Simple Kind, by Yasmine Gooneratne (Sri Lanka), Perera Hussein
Carry Me Down , by M J Hyland (UK), Canongate
Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (UK), Sceptre
The Perfect Man, by Naeem Murr (UK), Heinemann
The Testament of Gideon Mack, by James Robertson (UK), Hamish Hamilton
Best First Book
The Saffron Kitchen, by Yasmin Crowther- photo right (UK) Abacus/Little Brown
The Mathematics of Love, by Emma Darwin (UK) Headline/Review
This Time of Dying, by Reina James (UK) Portobello
Giraffe, by J M Ledgard (UK), Jonathan Cape
Londonstani, by Gautam Malkani (UK), Fourth Estate
In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar (UK), Viking
The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore (UK), Harvill Secker
South East Asia and South Pacific
Best Book
Ocean Roads, by James George (New Zealand), Huia
Theft: A Love Story, by Peter Carey (Australia), Knopf/Random House
Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand), Penguin
Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright (Australia), Giramondo
The Fainter, by Damien Wilkins (New Zealand), Victoria University Press
Red Spikes, by Margo Lanagan - photo right(Australia), Allen and Unwin
Careless by Deborah Robertson (Australia), Picador
Back to top
Best First Book
Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor (Australia), Allen and Unwin
Davey Darling by Paul Shannon (New Zealand), Penguin
The Fish & Chip Song, by Carl Nixon (New Zealand), Vintage
Long Road of the Junkmailer, by Patrick Holland (Australia), UQP
Poinciana, by Jane Turner Goldsmith (Australia), Wakefield
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