Zimbabwean Author NoViolet Bulawayo Wins the 2025 Best of Caine Award

Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo has been awarded the 2025 Best of Caine Award for her short story “Hitting Budapest,” which originally won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011.

Earlier this year, we reported the shortlist for the special one-time prize celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Caine Prize for African Writing, honoring the most exceptional short story to have won the Prize since its inception in 2000. Bulawayo’s win was announced by Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of the Caine Prize, at the inaugural Words Across Waters Afro Lit Festival on Saturday, September 27, 2025.

“Hitting Budapest” was selected from a field of 25 previous Caine Prize winners by a distinguished judging panel comprising Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah (Chair), award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, and critically acclaimed film producer Tony Tagoe.

Speaking on the winning story, Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah said: “It was a tremendously impressive collection of stories to read through, but 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.”

“Hitting Budapest”, the opening chapter of Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, tells the story of a group of children in a Zimbabwean shantytown who embark on a daring expedition to steal guavas from the affluent neighborhood of Budapest. Through the eyes of ten-year-old Darling, the narrative captures the harsh realities of poverty and the survival strategies of children navigating a world marked by economic collapse and political turmoil.

In her acceptance speech, Bulawayo reflected on the significance of both awards in her literary journey: “Winning the Caine Prize as an unpublished writer back in 2011 was truly the kind of defining highlight to jumpstart a career. It brought my work to a global audience, affirmed my literary path, and strengthened my confidence and commitment to writing so that finishing a first novel worthy of the recognition bestowed on me by Africa’s most prestigious literary award, my first ever recognition, was non-negotiable. Now, receiving the Best of Caine Award these many years later feels like a moment to reflect on the journey.”

Bulawayo dedicated the award to future writers: “It is to the future writers still to come, those whose voices we are yet to hear, that I dedicate this Best of Caine Award. I am truly excited to read you all, and witnessing how you continue to shape the landscape of African literature.”

NoViolet Bulawayo is the author of two acclaimed novels: We Need New Names (2013) and Glory (2022). Her debut novel, We Need New Names, which expanded on themes from “Hitting Budapest,” was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the LA Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among other honors. Her second novel, Glory, a satirical allegory of Zimbabwe’s political landscape told through animal characters, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Rathbones Folio Prize. The novel solidified Bulawayo’s reputation as one of Africa’s most innovative and fearless voices.

Congratulations to NoViolet Bulawayo on this historic achievement, and to all 25 Caine Prize winners whose extraordinary stories have defined a quarter-century of African literary excellence!