"Skinned" By Popular Writer, Lesley Nneka Arimah wins 2019 Caine Prize

Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the 2019 Caine Prize for her short story “Skinned”, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (Issue 53) 2018.

The Nigerian writer took the cash prize of £10,000 home, over her short story about a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed.


Announcing the winner of the 2019 Caine Prize at an award dinner on Monday 8 July, Dr. Peter Kimani, Chairman of the Judges said:

“The winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing is a unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals. Lesley Nneka Arimah’s Skinned defamiliarizes the familiar to topple social hierarchies, challenge traditions and envision new possibilities for women of the world. Using a sprightly diction, she invents a dystopian universe inhabited by unforgettable characters where friendship is tested, innocence is lost, and readers gain a new understanding of life.”

Lesley Nneka Arimah who lives in Las Vegas and currently working on a novel about you, is a 2019 United States Artists Fellow in Writing.