Olufemi Terry

Olufemi Terry is a Sierra Leone-born writer. He won the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing for his second short story "Stickfighting Days", which was originally published in Chimurenga. The judges said he was "a talent with an enormous future". He hopes to publish his debut novel soon.

Life Terry was born in Sierra Leone but grew up in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the Côte d'Ivoire and studied at a university in New York, United States,

On 5 July 2010, Terry won the Caine Prize for African Writing, ahead of such other African writers as Ken Barris (South Africa), Lily Mabura (Kenya), Namwali Serpell (Zambia), and Alex Smith (South Africa). Judges chair and literary editor with The Economist, Fiammetta Rocco, said: Ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative, Olufemi Terry's Stickfighting Days presents a heroic culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception. The execution of this story is so tight and the presentation so cinematic, it confirms Olufemi Terry as a talent with an enormous future. Terry said he was "overwhelmed for at least the first hour". (the new Mississippi Review) as well as in the Caine anthology To See the Mountain.

Works