Vera has lived in Canada since last year where she previously secured a doctorate in English after completing her secondary education in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

The 39-year-old Vera has written short stories and novels including Nehanda and Without a Name that were short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa.

She won the prestigious prize in 1997 for Under the Tongue, a novel set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's independence war but that also deals with taboo subjects like rape.

The Tucholsky Award, worth 150 000 kronor, has been handed out since the beginning of the 1980s to persecuted, threatened or exiled writers and publishers.

The award was named after German writer Kurt Tucholsky, who came to Sweden in the beginning of the 1930s as a refugee from Nazi- Germany.

He committed suicide in 1935 while waiting for the authorities to approve his application as a political refugee.

Former Tucholsky Award winners include Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin of Bangladesh, Romani poet Rajko Djuric and Chinese poet and writer Jun Feng. - Sapa-dpa