Providence, R.I.--Epaphras C. Osondu, assistant professor of English at Providence College and a native of Nigeria, was named one of five finalists for the Caine Prize for African Writing--awarded annually for African creative writing.

Osondu's short story, "Waiting," was published first in October 2008 in Guernica, an art and politics magazine. The story about two African boys living in a refugee camp chronicles their struggles to survive as they await adoption by a foreign family.

His story was selected from 122 entries by authors from 12 African countries. The winner of the prize will be selected in July. He or she will receive £10,000 (British pounds). In addition, the winner will be offered a one-month residency at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as a Caine Prize/Georgetown University Writer-in-Residence.

This year's five finalists also will be reading from their work at the Royal Over-Seas League in London and at the London Literature Festival in July.

Osondu said the idea for "Waiting" came when he volunteered for a Syracuse University program that taught refugee children from war-torn Sudan and Somalia who had been resettled in upstate New York.

"I was teaching them creative writing and naturally we all began to exchange stories," he explained. "They told me about their lives in the refugee camp prior to moving to America. The story draws its inspiration from some of the things I learned that summer."

Osondu, who just finished his first academic year as a member of the PC faculty, earned his bachelor's degree in English and literary studies from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. He earned his master of fine arts degree from Syracuse.

Osondu served as an adjunct instructor at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse in 2007 and as a lecturer of English at the University of Maryland in the spring of 2008.

Among many writing honors, he was a finalist for the Caine Prize in 2007, nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2007, winner of the Nirelle Galson Prize for Fiction in 2007, and a finalist for the Million Writers Award in 2007.

This latest accolade is validation for his craft as a writer, said Osondu, who noted that much of his writing revolves around the concept of "foreignness and how this leads to genocide, wars, and discrimination."

"It is certainly a good feeling to be named a finalist," he said. "It is a reminder that the work is what is important, and that if you do the work, the rest will follow."