Jamaican Shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers Prize

Jamaican writer, Marlon James has been named on the shortlist for best first novel in the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, having presented his debut novel, 'John Crow's Devil'.

The shortlist for four regions in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize was announced on January 23. Marlon James is among the five writers selected in the Canada/Caribbean region for best first book.

Regional winners will be announced on February 6 and will enter the final stage of the 20th Commonwealth Writers Prize, the international award for outstanding fiction, which will be decided by a panel made up of the four regional Chairpersons in Melbourne, Australia and announced on March 14. The author of Overall Best Book will be awarded £10,000, and the author of Best First Book will receive £3,000.

The Commonwealth Foundation established the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1987 to encourage and reward new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin. This prize celebrates the outstanding literary talent that exists in many parts of the Commonwealth and its contribution to contemporary writing in English.

Last year, a writer of Jamaican heritage, Andrea Levy, won the Best Book Award 2005 for 'Small Island'. Miss Levy was born in England to Jamaican parents. 'Small Island' won the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread Book of the Year 2004.

'John Crow's Devil' tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. In the village of Gibbeah, magic co-exists with religion, and good and evil are never as they seem in this tale of religious mania, redemption, and sexual obsession.

Mr. James was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1970. He graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1991 with a degree in Literature.

Source:http://www.jis.gov.jm/foreign_affairs/html/

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