* Mohammed Hanif short-listed for Best First Book from Europe and South Asia
LAHORE: Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif, who became known last year for his first book A Case of Exploding Mangoes, has been nominated for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book from Europe and South Asia.
The other writers nominated for best first book are Sulaiman Addonia for The Consequences of Love, Daniel Clay for Broken, Joe Dunthome for Submarine, and Murzaban F Shroff for Breathless in Bombay. The judging panel for the Europe and South Asia region was chaired by Professor Makarand Paranjape from India) Dr Durre Sameen Ahmed from Pakistan and Dr Alex Tickell from UK.
The Commonwealth Writers Prize is organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation. The prize, now in its 23rd year, celebrates cutting-edge fiction across the four regions of the Commonwealth: Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and the South Pacific.
The two Europe and South Asia regional winners that emerge from the shortlists will be announced on March 12. These two winners will then enter the final phase of the competition and go on to compete head to head with the other six finalists from Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, South East Asia and the South Pacific for the overall Best Book and Best First Book award.
The two overall winners, chosen by an international panel of six judges coming together in New Zealand, will be announced on May 16 at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival (AWRF).
Each of the regional winners will receive £1,000 and in addition be invited to take part in a week-long series of community events and public readings alongside the final judging in New Zealand, culminating in the announcement of the two overall winners for Best First Book and Best Book. The overall Best Book winner will receive £10,000 and the overall Best First Book winner will receive £5,000.
Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chris Cleave, David Lodge, Shashi Deshpande and Philip Hensher are the six contenders for the Best Book Award.
