Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo has been awarded the 2025 Best of Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story Hitting Budapest, originally published in the Boston Review in 2010 and first awarded the Caine Prize in 2011.
The new accolade, created to mark the Prize’s 25th anniversary, celebrates the most enduring and impactful story among its past winners.
Announced at the inaugural Words Across Waters Afro Lit Festival on September 27, the award was presented by Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of the Caine Prize.
The judging panel, led by Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah and joined by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Tony Tagoe, selected Bulawayo’s story from a field of 25 previous winners.
“The decision to award the Best of Caine Prize to NoViolet Bulawayo was unanimous and swift,” said Prof. Gurnah. “The judges were impressed with the control of voice and the superb evocation of a childhood vision.”
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A Story That Continues to Speak
Hitting Budapest follows a group of children from a Zimbabwean shantytown called Paradise who venture into the affluent neighbourhood of Budapest to steal guavas. Told through the eyes of ten-year-old Darling, the story captures the stark divide between poverty and privilege, and the moral ambiguity that hunger and desperation can provoke.
The story’s vivid imagery and refusal to simplify injustice earned Bulawayo the £10,000 Caine Prize in 2011. It later became the opening chapter of her debut novel We Need New Names (2013), which 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.
Migration, Displacement, and the Search for Belonging
Bulawayo’s work is deeply rooted in themes of migration, identity, and displacement. Born Elizabeth Zandile Tshele in Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe, she adopted the pen name NoViolet Bulawayo—“No” meaning “with” in Ndebele, combined with her mother’s name Violet and the city of her upbringing.
She moved to the United States at 18 and later earned an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University.
Her debut novel expands on Hitting Budapest’s themes, tracing Darling’s journey from Zimbabwe to the U.S. and exploring the tension between escape and dislocation.
Her second novel, Glory (2022), shifts into political satire, using animal allegory to critique authoritarianism and corruption in a fictional African nation.
Inspired by Orwell’s Animal Farm, it was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Rathbones Folio Prize.
A Voice That Echoes Across Borders
Bulawayo’s writing continues to resonate across continents and generations. In her acceptance speech, she reflected on the significance of both awards:
“Winning the Caine Prize as an unpublished writer back in 2011 was truly the kind of defining highlight to jumpstart a career… Now, receiving the Best of Caine Award these many years later feels like a moment to reflect on the journey.”
She dedicated the award to emerging 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.”
Celebrating a Literary Legacy
With Hitting Budapest, NoViolet Bulawayo has not only crafted a timeless story but also laid the foundation for a literary career that continues to challenge, inspire, and illuminate.
Her work speaks to the urgency of migration, the complexity of identity, and the enduring power of storytelling.
Congratulations to NoViolet Bulawayo and to all 25 Caine Prize winners, whose voices have shaped a quarter-century of African literary excellence.
