George Makana Clark's short story ''Half Night'', first published in Tin House magazine (click here for more information) has been listed in this year's BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES anthology as one of ''The One Hundred Distinguished Stories'' of 2008. This is the eighth time that George's work has been named in this list.

The story was the seed of the striking opening to his debut novel THE RAW MAN which Cape will publish in the UK in early 2011.

About THE RAW MAN:

In a remote glen in Southern Africa, where the difference between the material and spiritual worlds is a matter of perception, a "blood reader" of mixed race - who sees people's pasts and destinies reflected in their blood - struggles to unravel his family's secrets and come to grips with his ancestry. Told in reverse chronology, it presents a family puzzle, and a glimpse of a conflicted region, that falls beautifully and heart-rendingly into place for the reader at the end. THE RAW MAN paints a brooding portrait of Africa, with scenes as magical as the best of Marquez, and summoning up moments of hallucinatory power akin to APOCALYPSE NOW.

About the author:

George Makana Clark is an author with a background as fascinating as his novels.  He spent his first seventeen years in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), studied at Florida Atlanta University, and has worked in South Africa, the Caribbean, South America, South Florida, and Europe in a variety of occupations including musician and bush guide.

After three years in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany, he earned his PhD in English at Florida State University. He first began writing when he was in his thirties and has since become a prize-winning short story writer, winning an O. Henry Award, receiving an Honourable Mention in the Pushcart Prize, and being short-listed for the Caine Prize, among other accolades. He is widely published in journals like Zoetrope, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and Black Warrior Review and his short story collection THE SMALL BEES' HONEY was published in the US by White Pine Press (1997).  He now teaches Fiction Writing, African literature, and Post Colonial Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.