Lawrence Hill (right) of Burlington, Ont. is this year's winner of The Commonwealth Prize for his novel The Book of Negroes. (It is published in the U.S. as Someone Knows My Name, apparently because the U.S. publisher thought the word 'Negroes' was a bit incendiary. Honest — that's what Hill says to a Guardian reporter.
Hill wins 10,000 pounds for the honour.
Previous Commonwealth Prize winners include “…Rohinton Mistry, Peter Carey and JM Coetzee. Last year's winner was Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip, which went on to be shortlisted for the Booker prize. To be eligible, the authors must be citizens of one of the Commonwealth's 53 member countries and write in English. Each year there are separate regional shortlists, and prizes of 1,000 before all of the winners are considered. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges from six different countries who met over two days during the final programme.”