The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, the £10,000 prize was named in memory of businessman and philanthropist Sir Michael Harris Caine,^[1] former Chairman of Booker Group and of the Booker Prize management committee.^[2] The Caine Prize is sometimes called the "African Booker".^[3] The Chair of the Board is Ellah Wakatama, appointed in 2019.^[4]

Between 2020 and 2022 it was styled as the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing due to a three-year grant from Nicolai Tangen's AKO Foundation.^[5]

The Caine Prize is a registered charity with the aim of bringing African writing to a wider audience through an annual literary award. It is named after businessman and philanthropist Sir Michael Caine (1927–1999), former Chairman of Booker plc, who also chaired the "Africa95" arts festival and the Booker Prize management committee for almost 25 years. After his death, friends and colleagues established the prize to be awarded annually in his memory.^[2]

The prize was first awarded in 2000, to the Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela for her short story "The Museum", at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare. In its first year the Caine Prize attracted entries from 20 African countries.

The winner is announced at a dinner in July, formerly held in Oxford but most recently at SOAS, University of London,^[6] to which the shortlisted candidates are all invited. This is part of a week of activities for the candidates, including readings, book signings and press opportunities.

Additionally, the Caine Prize arranges writers' workshops that are held in a different African country each year.^[2]

Among supporters of the prize are friends of Sir Michael Caine in the UK, United States and Africa, the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the Zochonis Foundation, the Marit & Hans Rausing Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Headley Trust, the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, the David Alliance Family Foundation, the Cairns Charitable Trust, the Botwinick-Wolfensohn Family Foundation, the Sunrise Foundation, the Von Clemm Charitable Trust, the Royal Over-Seas League, Sarova Hotels, Bata Shoes (Kenya) Ltd and (Zimbabwe) Ltd and Kenya Airways.

The five African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature have supported the Caine Prize as patrons: Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz, J. M. Coetzee and Abdulrazak Gurnah. Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Sir Michael's widow, was founding President of the council and Jonathan Taylor the first Chair.^[7]

In 2011, Nigerian-American writer and critic Ikhide Ikheloa criticized the Caine Prize: "The creation of a prize for 'African writing' may have created the unintended effect of breeding writers willing to stereotype Africa for glory. The mostly lazy, predictable stories that made the 2011 shortlist celebrate orthodoxy and mediocrity. … The problem now is that many writers are skewing their written perspectives to fit what they imagine will sell to the West and the judges of the Caine Prize."^[8]

In 2019, a story was removed from the shortlist after "an allegation" led to admission of "the author’s failure to attribute a core source", i. e. Laleh Khadivi's 2014 story.^[9]