Zimbabwean, Bulawayo, makes the six shortlist for Man Booker Prize

NoViolet Bulawayo

Ahead of October announcement of a Man Booker Prize 2013 winner, author and former Caine Prize winner, Zimbabwean, NoViolet Bulawayo's novel, We Need New Name is the only work of an African writer among the list of six contenders released yesterday.

The list include The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton;  Harvest by Jim Crace; The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri;  A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; and The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin.

Formerly known as Booker Prize, the winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000. Also, like all the shortlisted authors, the winner gets a cheque for £2,500 and a designer bound copy of their book. Fulfilling one of the objectives of the prize - to encourage the widest possible readership for the best in literary fiction - the winner and the shortlisted authors now enjoy a dramatic increase in book sales worldwide.

Meanwhile, few days ago, Bulawayo had presented her debut novel We Need New Names was presented at the British Council, Harare. 

The Man Booker Prize 2013 had 13 nominees from which the six finalists were selected  before the winner is announced in October, 2013. 

Bulawayo was born in Tsholotsho. She earned her MFA at Cornell University, where she was also awarded a Truman Capote Fellowship, and she is currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University in California.

She is the author of the short story Hitting Budapest (2010), which won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing, and Snapshots (2009), shortlisted for the South Africa PEN Studzinsi Award. Her latest novel We Need New Names (2013) is longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker  Prize.