Novelist NoViolet Bulawayo has been named the winner of the Best of Caine Award 2025 for her short story Hitting Budapest which first earned her the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011.
The award, announced during the inaugural Words Across Waters Afro Lit Festival on 27 September marks the 25th anniversary of the prize.
It honours the most outstanding story from past winners across the prize’s history.
Bulawayo, the author of Glory and We Need New Names is among Africa’s most celebrated contemporary writers.
Her works have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction while also earning the PEN/Hemingway Award and the LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction.
She currently teaches at Cornell University where she completed her MFA.
The 2025 judging panel was chaired by Nobel Laureate Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah alongside Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Ghanaian film producer Tony Tagoe.
Prof Gurnah praised Bulawayo’s story for its craft and enduring resonance.
“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.” he said
Reflecting on her win, Bulawayo described the award as both a recognition and a call to the future:
“Winning the Caine Prize as an unpublished writer back in 2011 was the defining highlight that jumpstarted my career. Now, receiving the Best of Caine Award these many years later feels like a moment to reflect on the journey. I dedicate this to the future writers still to come, those whose voices we are yet to hear. I am truly excited to read you all and witness how you continue to shape the landscape of African literature,” she said.
The Caine Prize, established in memory of Sir Michael Caine former chairman of Booker plc, carries a £10,000 award and has become one of Africa’s most influential literary honours.
Over the past 25 years it has propelled writers onto the global stage, offering publishing deals, writing fellowships and a platform for new African voices.
Each year, shortlisted stories and works from Caine Prize workshops are published in an anthology by Cassava Republic Press and partners across the continent.
