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The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, is a leading award for fiction that was first awarded in 1987. The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation working in the 53 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The aim of the Prize is to encourage new Commonwealth fiction, and to ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin.

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is sponsored and administered by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Foundation in the Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and South Pacific regions. The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental body working to help civil society organisations promote democracy, development and cultural understanding in Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is established as a noted annual event in both the media and literary calendar. Since 2006, the regional sections of the Prize have been open for sponsorship and the Canada/ Caribbean and Africa regions are still seeking partners. It is established as a noted annual event in both the media and literary calendar. Last year, the CWP achieved a high level of exposure in both regional and international media. Over the past years media coverage has increased year-on-year and it is expected to continue to do so.

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is chaired by Justice Nicholas Hasluck, distinguished Australian author and leading judicial officer. Justice Hasluck has published ten works of fiction, including the award-winning The Bellarmine Jug and The Country Without Music.

Contents 1 Selection process 2 2007 Regional Winners 2.1 Africa 2.2 Canada and the Caribbean 2.3 Europe and South Asia 2.4 South East Asia and South Pacific 3 2007 Final Programme and Overall Winners 4 Best Book Winners 1987-2007 5 Best First Book Winners 1987-2007 6 See also 7 External links

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Europe and South Asia, The Caribbean and Canada, and South East Asia and the South Pacific. Entries are first assessed by four regional panels of judges and the selection of the overall winner is made by a distinguished pan-Commonwealth panel. In each of the four regions of the Commonwealth two prizes of £1,000 are awarded: one for the Best Book and one for the Best First Book. The resulting eight regional winners’ books are then judged by the 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.

The eight regional winners for the 2007 Prize were announced in March 2007. The eight regional winners are;

Best Book: - The Native Commissioner, by Shaun Johnson (South Africa), Penguin Books

Best First Book: - All We Have Left Unsaid, by Maxine Case (South Africa), Kwela Books

Best Book: - The Friends of Meager Fortune, by David Adams Richards (Canada), Doubleday Canada

Best First Book: - Vandal Love, by D. Y. Béchard (Canada), Doubleday

Best Book: - The Perfect Man, by Naeem Murr (UK), Heinemann

Best First Book: - In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar (UK), Viking

Best Book: - Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand), Penguin

Best First Book: -Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor (Australia), Allen and Unwin

Each year the final programme of the Prize takes place in a different country. It also rotates around the different Commonwealth regions. The final programme comprises the judging for the overall Prize by the pan-Commonwealth panel and a series of readings and other public events by the regional prize-winning writers, who are all invited to attend.

This year, the final programme was hosted in Jamaica from 20 to 27 May 2007 as part of and in partnership with the Calabash International Literary Festival. The two overall winners were announced at an awards ceremony on the final night of the Calabash Festival. In recent years, the final programme has also been held in Melbourne, Malta, Canada, Scotland, Ghana, and India.

The distinguished 2007 Pan-Commonwealth panel of judges was chaired by Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck AM (Chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize), and comprised of the four regional chairpersons and Colin Channer, organiser and founder of the Calabash Festival. The four regional chairpersons were: Professor Arthur Gakwandi (Africa); Professor Aritha van Herk (Canada and the Caribbean); Professor Angela Smith (Europe and South Asia); and Dr Christine Prentice (South East Asia and South Pacific).

The 2007 Overall Winners are;

• Best Book: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand)

• Best First Book: Vandal Love by D.Y. Béchard (Canada)

• 1987 - Olive Senior, Summer Lightning
• 1988 - Festus Iyayi, Heroes
• 1989 - Janet Frame, The Carpathians
• 1990 - Mordecai Richler, Solomon Gursky Was Here
• 1991 - David Malouf, The Great World
• 1992 - Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
• 1993 - Alex Miller, The Ancestor Game
• 1994 - Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
• 1995 - Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin
• 1996 - Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
• 1997 - Earl Lovelace, Salt
• 1998 - Peter Carey, Jack Maggs
• 1999 - Murray Bail, Eucalyptus
• 2000 - John Maxwell Coetzee, Disgrace
• 2001 - Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
• 2002 - Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish
• 2003 - Austin Clarke, The Polished Hoe
• 2004 - Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore
• 2005 - Andrea Levy, Small Island
• 2006 - Kate Grenville, The Secret River
• 2007 - Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip

• 1989 - Bonnie Burnard, Women of Influence
• 1990 - John Cranna, Visitors
• 1991 - Pauline Melville, Shape-Shifter
• 1992 - Robert Antoni, Divina Trace
• 1993 - Gita Hariharan, The Thousand Faces of Night
• 1994 - Keith Oatley, The Case of Emily V
• 1995 - Adib Khan, Seasonal Adjustments
• 1996 - Vikram Chandra, Red Earth, Pouring Rain
• 1997 - Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall on Your Knees
• 1998 - Tim Wynveen, Angel Falls
• 1999 - Kerri Sakamoto, The Electrical Field
• 2000 - Jeffrey Moore, Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain
• 2001 - Zadie Smith, White Teeth
• 2002 - Manu Herbstein, Ama, A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
• 2003 - Sarah Hall, Haweswater
• 2004 - Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• 2005 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
• 2006 - Mark McWatt, Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement
• 2007 - D. Y. Béchard, Vandal Love

• List of literary awards
• List of British literary awards

• http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/writersprize/
• http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com