The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has announced five regional winners for this year’s edition, with Mauritian writer Reena Usha Rungoo emerging as the winner in the African region.

The other winners are India’s Sanjana Thakur for Asia, Canada’s Julie Bouchard for the Canada & Europe Region, Trinidad and Tobago’s Portia Subran for the Caribbean Region, and New Zealand’s Pip Robertson for the Pacific Region.

Rungoo, who had been shortlisted for the Prize with 22 other writers (four of whom were African), clinched the regional award for her story “Dite”, an exploration of a Mauritian woman’s love of tea and her ties to the colonial history of tea. Each tea in her collection contains an olfactory memory in which her relationship with education, language, sex and other women is captured.

According to South African writer Keletso (judge for the African region), “From the first time I read it, ‘Dite’ stayed with me. Its brilliance is distinguishable on first reading and even better when read once more. It is intentional and carefully layered. A masterful blend of memories alongside the protagonist’s love for tea. The story demonstrates skill, shifting between points of view and time, depicting generations of women and the strain left behind by colonialism.”

Reena Usha Rungoo is a Mauritian writer, scholar, teacher, speaker, and mother. As an islander, an African and a diasporic South Asian, she uses the language of fiction (whether as a writer or a literary critic) to speak on how colonial violence infiltrates our beings, our languages and our desires, and on the creative ways in which we resist. She is an assistant professor of literature at Harvard University.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. The Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

Chaired by Ugandan-British writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, this year’s judging panel includes South African writer Keletso Mopai, Singaporean novelist O Thiam Chin, Canadian writer Shashi Bhat, poet Richard Georges from the British Virgin Islands, and Australian Bundjalung writer Melissa Lucashenko.

“The short story form has neither the luxury of time nor the comfort of space. It is an impatient form; it does not dance around. The punch of a good short story leaves you breathless. As the judging panel, we enjoyed, sorrowed, celebrated and eventually agreed that these stories came up on top of the different regions”, said Makumbi, commenting on the winning stories.

This year’s prize attracted the highest-ever number of entrants (7,359 in total), and the regional winners are writers who are being nominated for the first time. These winners will go through to the final round of judging and the overall winner will be announced on 26 June 2024. Their stories will be published online by the literary magazine Granta.

Click here to read more about this year’s winners.

The 2024 edition of the All African Women Poetry Festival (AAWP Festival) is scheduled to take place in Ghana this week from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 May, 2024. 

In this four-day thread of events, specifically curated to educate and enhance playfulness, the festival will celebrate the legacy of Ghanaian playwright Efua Theodora Sutherland under the theme “Poetry & Play.” The events will be hosted at the W.E.B Dubois Memorial Centre and the Foundation for Contemporary Art in Accra.

Some of the scheduled guests, panellists and performers at this year’s festival include Moyosola Olowokure, Winnie Madoro, Nyangari Macharia, Claudia Owusu, Deborah Johnson, Effie Nkrumah, Titilope Sonuga, Maryam Bukar Hassan (Alhanislam), Mo’Africa Wa Mokgathi (born Muriel Mokgathi-Mvubu), vangile gantsho, Theresa Ankomah, Agness Panfred and Vivian Boateng, among others.

The noteworthy events in this year’s showcase include an exclusive listening of Sonuga’s latest album SIS (scheduled for Thursday 23 May), the “Writing as an African” panel which features literary experts Prof. Helen Yitah and Prof Anne Adams, and the “Publish Her Inked Realities” panel which features literary experts Ama Dadson, Akoss Ofori-Mensah and Akuvi Agueze. There is also the Voice On Words (VOW) competition, a poetry contest featuring high school students.

 The AAWP Festival seeks to celebrate African literature and literary legends, empower African women, women of African descent and the African Diaspora, educate the youth, and engage with marginalised communities through sustainable events, programming, and projects. The festival hosts poets, spoken word artists and stakeholders in shaping the African narrative from across the continent and the African diaspora, in a bid to foster collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing. 

One key element of the festival is the annual honouring of one female literary legend. This year, the focus is on Efua Theodora Sutherland (1924-1996), playwright, director, dramatist, children’s author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Sutherland’s works include the plays Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967) and The Marriage Of Anansewa (1975).

Visit the festival’s official website to learn more about this year’s lineup of events.

Nigerian-born author Atinuke’s book Brilliant Black British History has clinched the prize for Children’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards.

This was revealed at the award ceremony held on 13 May 2024 at Grosvenor House, London.

Illustrated by Kingsley Nebechi, the book saw off stiff competition from the likes of Sathnam Sanghera’s Stolen History, Leon Diop’s Black and Irish, Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara’s King Charles Volume 97 and Adam Kay’s Kay Incredible Inventions.

Celebrating her win, Atinuke stressed the importance of documentation and owning narratives:

“For hundreds of years, people, children, men, women, were sold in Britain on the equivalent of eBay, with the excuse being the colour of their skin, and we have stories of children in London being dragged by their hair through the streets when they tried to escape. Me standing here and winning this award for a Black history of Britain would’ve been beyond the wildest dreams of those enslaved people. One of the things that has made this possible is books. The autobiographies of Prince [Olaudah] Equiano and [Frederick] Douglass changed the minds of the British public about the institution of slavery. So, books are incredibly important, stories are incredibly important and we still don’t live in an equal and fair and safe society. But if we keep writing our books and keep telling our stories then maybe one day we will and all our wildest dreams will come true.”

Born in Ibadan and raised in Lagos, Atinuke is an author of children’s books and an oral storyteller of traditional African folktales. She is an award-winning author of over 20 children’s books based on her life in Nigeria and other African stories. Some of her books include Anna Hibiscus, Baby Goes to Market, Too Small Tola, Catch That Chicken and The No. 1 Car Spotter, among others. She lives in Wales

Brilliant Black British History is an eye-opening story of Britain, focusing on parts of British culture that have mostly been left out of history books. The incredible journey through time is brought to life through Atinuke’s fascinating storytelling and illustrated scenes, detailed maps, and timelines. Through her eyes, readers get to learn that the first Britons were Black and that some of the Roman soldiers who ruled Britain were Black, among other previously suppressed facts.

Covering a range of topics from science and sport to literature and law, Atinuke celebrates the brilliant Black people who have helped build Britain. Children can learn about key historical topics such as the world wars, slavery, the Industrial Revolution, Windrush, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The British Book Awards, also known as “the Nibbies”, has been the book trade’s leading awards since 1990. These awards celebrate authors and illustrators, and showcase the industry behind the scenes that help bring the books to readers. Judged by leading industry experts, authors, journalists and celebrities, the Nibbies are regarded as “the BAFTAs of the book trade.’’

Click here to see the full list of winners.

The longlist for this year’s edition of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize has been announced …

Two books published by African authors are up for consideration.

The twelve-strong longlist, selected by a panel of librarians and library staff from across the UK, includes works by British, Australian, American, Canadian, Georgian, Indian, Nigerian and South Korean authors. Five of the titles are debut works.

The African books are Blessings by Nigerian writer Chukwuebuka Ibeh, and Shigidi and The Brass Head of Obalufon by Nigerian writer Wole Talabi.

Chukwuebuka Ibeh was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys Quarterly Review, The New England Review of Books, Dappled Things, and Lolwe. He was Runner-up for the 2021 J.F Powers Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the 2019 Gerald Kraak Award and 2020 Morland Foundation Scholarship and was profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” in Electric Literature. His debut novel, Blessings, is a coming-of-age story about a queer teenage boy who has to navigate a hostile society while striving to live his truth.

Wole Talabi is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer, editor and engineer. His fiction has appeared in speculative fiction magazines and anthologies globally and has been translated into 3 languages. He has been shortlisted for several awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Nommo Award, and has won the latter twice – in 2018 (for “The Regression Test”) and 2020 (for “Incompleteness Theories”). His fantasy novel, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, features a disgruntled god and a succubus who team up for a heist across two worlds.

The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, first awarded in 2016, is an international prize that supports and celebrates “the best adventure writing today.” The prize is named after South African novelist Wilbur Smith and is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. Awards are presented in three categories: Best Published Novel, New Voices, and Author of Tomorrow. This year, the judging panel features Matt Barr, Lee Craigie, Alasdair Harris, Sarah Outen and Emma Styles.

The prize is powered by the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to empowering young writers, the advancement of the adventure writing genre and the promotion of literacy. Previous winners include Emma Styles, Giles Kristian, Rachel Joyce and Henry Porter.

The prize for the Award is £10,000, and the Foundation defines adventure writing as “a story that conveys the feeling of being on an epic journey.”

The shortlist for the 2024 Best Published Novel award will be announced on Thursday 30th May, and the winning Work will be announced at the Foundation’s Award Ceremony on Thursday 19th September.

Visit the Foundation’s official website to read more about their work and the awards.

Five African writers have made it to the shortlist for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, including writers from Mauritius and Rwanda for the first time in history.

The 23 stories on the 2024 shortlist were selected from a total of 7,359 entries from 53 Commonwealth countries—a ten per cent increase compared to 2023.

The African stories that made the cut include:

• “Fadi” by Azags Agandaa (Ghana)
• “Dite” by Reena Usha Rungoo (Mauritius)
• “House No. 49” by Olajide Omojarabi (Nigeria)
• “The Goat” by Jean Pierre Nikuze (Rwanda)
• “A Song Sung in Secret” by Jayne Bauling (South Africa)

Dr Anne T. Gallagher AO, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, noted: “The Short Story Prize is legendary for unearthing and nurturing the rich creative talent of our Commonwealth. This year is no exception. Congratulations to the 23 writers whose stories will now secure a truly global audience.”

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. The Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink.

Chaired by Ugandan-British writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, this year’s judging panel includes South African writer Keletso Mopai, Singaporean novelist O Thiam Chin, Canadian writer Shashi Bhat, poet Richard Georges from the British Virgin Islands, and Australian Bundjalung writer Melissa Lucashenko.

“This is a dream list for lovers of the short story form. You’ll be amazed and thrilled, startled and shocked, and heartbroken and humbled in equal measure by the skill and talent, imagination and creativity”, said Makumbi, commenting on the shortlist.

The 2024 shortlisted stories will be published online in adda, featuring new writing from around the Commonwealth. Regional winners will be announced on 29 May, while the overall winner will be announced on 26 June.

Read more about the shortlisted writers on the Commonwealth Foundation’s official website.

The African Book Festival Berlin, the first festival in the German capital that focuses on literature from Africa and the diaspora, returns for another edition.

The stars of contemporary African literature will be gathered at Alte Münze in Berlin-Mitte from 28th to 30th June 2024.

This year, the festival will be the Queer Edition, focusing on African and Afro-diasporic authors from the LGBTQI+ community and showcasing literature in which homosexuality and queerness in Africa play a role.

As part of a three-day festival program consisting of readings, discussions, music, poetry performances and interactive, modern event formats, the audience will have the opportunity to experience stars and newcomers live and engage in conversation with them. The program is accompanied by a large outdoor market offering a variety of food, goods and, of course, plenty of books.

The African Book Festival offers its festival guests a brave space for their writing, experiences and perspectives. It addresses the persecution of homo-, bi-, trans and intersex people as well as genderqueer people worldwide and raises awareness. At the same time, the festival presents writers who in their writing celebrate one thing above all: Love.

The African Book Festival Berlin is organised by InterKontinental eV,  a state-approved non-profit association based in Berlin since 2018. The association’s goal is to promote literature from Africa and writers from African countries in Germany. It designs writing workshops to foster new talent and sets up small publication projects in exchange for donations to support its activities. 

This year’s guest list includes A. Igoni Barrett, Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, Ayodele Olofintuade, Francesca Ekwuyasi, Jude Dibia, Stella Nyanzi and Tlotlo Tsamaase, among others.

 The African Book Festival Berlin runs from 28th – 30th June. A 3-day festival pass costs 38€, while a day pass is 20€. Find out more here.

Motswana author Gothataone Moeng has been announced as one of ten emerging authors who have been declared winners at this year’s Whiting Awards. 

Each writer will receive $50,000 to help support their craft — one of the largest awards granted to new authors.

Moeng earned the award for Call and Response, a collection of nine stories set in contemporary Botswana. The other winners include: Aaliyah Bilal (Temple Folk, Fiction), Yook Choi (Skinship, Fiction), Shayok Misha Chowdhury (Public Obscenities, Drama), Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (The China Plays, Drama), Elisa Gonzalez (The Iliad, Poetry), Taylor Johnson (Inheritance, Poetry), Charif Shanahan (Trace Evidence, Poetry), Javier Zamora (Solito – Nonfiction, Unaccompanied – Poetry) & Ada Zhang (The Sorrows of Others, Fiction).

Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of literary programs, said in a statement: “This year’s winners have made liminal space their own — that place of potential that exists between states, whether those are genres, languages, countries, or definitions of self.”

Born in Serowe, Botswana, Gothataone Moeng is a Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing (UW-Madison), a former Fiction Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a former Fiction Fellow in the Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She has also received fellowships and support from Tin House, where she was a Summer Workshop Scholar, and from A Public Space, where she was an Emerging Writer Fellow. Her writing has appeared in or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, One Story, A Public Space, and the Oxford American, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi.

Her book Call and Response has been described as capable of “enthralling leaps in time and point of view” and “written with a deft hand.”

Since 1985, the Whiting Awards, powered by The Whiting Foundation,  is given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come. Though the writers may not necessarily be young (talent may emerge at any age), the grant ideally offers recipients a first opportunity to devote themselves fully to writing, and the recognition has a significant impact.  Whiting winners have gone on to win numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize.

Writers are shortlisted by a pool of nominators which changes annually, and usually includes writers, professors, editors, agents, critics, booksellers, artistic directors of theatres, dramaturgs, and directors of literary festivals or reading series. Winners are chosen by a selection committee, a small group of recognised writers, literary scholars, and editors appointed every year by the Foundation. 

The Whiting Foundation was created by the late Flora Ettlinger Whiting, a New York investor, collector, and philanthropist with a lifelong commitment to culture. She was a founding member of the Friends of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Foundation endeavours to honour Mrs. Whiting’s astute judgment and her love of the arts and humanities.

Find out more about the Whiting Awards and the works of this year’s winners here.

As part of its African Languages and Translation Programme, The Africa Institute, located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, opens applications for its third cohort of the Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-In-Residence Fellowship for the 2024 Academic Year.

The residency programme welcomes applications from creative writers including novelists, short story writers, playwrights, poets and scriptwriters related to Africa and the African diaspora for a grant of 45,000 AED (about  £9,773) in total. The proposed project can be in Arabic or English, though other languages will be considered.. The residency invites recipients to Sharjah, UAE for a period of three months to complete their work. Typically the cohort begins in Autumn of every year.

Recipients will have the opportunity to publish their texts through The Africa Institute’s publications programme. Projects relating to theatre and film scripts can also be published as texts or receive support in facilitating productions. The project could be new or a work-in-progress, and should be feasible for completion within the timeframe of the residency.

All applications will be reviewed by The Africa Institute through a committee of peers of well-known writers. Three recipients will be chosen based on the quality of their proposal, and the demonstrated feasibility of completion within the timeframe of the residency.

Applications must include: 

• CV/résumé of the applicant
• A two-page narrative of the project to be undertaken during the residency period, its significance, and a proposed completion date.
• A sample of published or unpublished writings.

The deadline to submit is Saturday 1 June, 2024.

To submit applications, compile all application materials; CV/résumé, two-page narrative and writing sample (in case of a book, please attach separately) into one PDF file in the mentioned order. Please name the file with the residency title abbreviation and the applicant’s name in the format TOCWRP_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME. Use the same name in the email subject and send the PDF as an attachment to applications@theafricainstitute.org.

This residency programme is created in honour of the late Nigerian Professor Tejumola Olaniyan and his remarkable intellectual legacy in the field of African literature and critical theory. Olaniyan, a Nigerian academic, was the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and African Cultural Studies, and the Wole Soyinka Professor of the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin. His primary research interests focused on Africa and its diaspora, African-Americans, the Caribbean, African literature, criticism, post-cultural studies, history, theory and the sociology of drama and pop culture.

Established in 2018, The Africa Institute is an interdisciplinary academic research institute dedicated to the study, research, and documentation of Africa and the African diaspora. The Institute’s curriculum of postgraduate studies is designed to train the next generation of critical thinkers in African and African diaspora studies. It strives to do this via international symposia and conferences, visual art exhibitions and artist commissions, film and performance series, community classes and outreach events.

Find out more about the Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-In-Residence Fellowship, here.

The Jhalak Prize has announced the longlist for its 2024 edition, with five African authors getting the nod.

In announcing the books that made the cut, the organisers were effusive in their praise for the longlisted authors.

“Delighted to announce the longlists for Jhalak Prize…each of these books is a literary gem, to be admired, loved and treasured forever. Our immense gratitude to the writers, creatives, publishers for bringing us this treasure trove!”,  they stated via the Prize’s official Instagram account.

The five African books on the full longlist of twelve include:

River Spirit by Leila Aboulela (Saqi Books)

Azucar by Nii Ayikwwei Parkes (Peepal Tree Press)

Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Penguin)

Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Swindled The World by Yepoka Yeebo (Bloomsbury)

Twelve Words for Moss by Elizabeth Jane Burnett (Penguin)

First launched in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize seek to celebrate books by British/British resident Black and Middle Eastern writers. The prize is unique in that it accepts entries published in the UK by writers of colour. These include (and are not limited to) fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and all other genres.

The Jhalak Prize awards £1000 to each winner, along with a unique work of art created by artists chosen for the annual Jhalak Art Residency. Furthermore, all short-listed authors receive a one-year complimentary membership of The London Library, the UK’s largest independent library. Each winner receives a two-year complimentary membership.

The judges for this year’s edition of the Jhalak Prize are Anni Domingo, Stella Oni, Denise Saul, Danielle Jawando, J.P Rose and Rashmi Sirdeshpande. The winner of the Prize will be announced on 30th May 2024.

Leading Nigerian publishing house, Cassava Republic Press, is calling Black women writers around the world to send in submissions for its inaugural Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize worth $30,000 in cash prizes..

This prize is dedicated to exceptional works by Black women (cis, trans and genderqueer). It represents a first in the world of Black women’s letters, not only by virtue of its global scope, but also its non-fiction focus, and its generous prize value. The primary objective of the award is to publish emerging and established Black women writers and thinkers from across the world, focusing on critical ideas across time and space. At the heart of this prize lies a deep commitment to amplifying the long tradition of Black women writers as knowledge-makers and critical thinkers. 

Cassava Republic is looking to publish and champion Black women writers who bridge the gap between “creativity” and “theory” with work that is both rigorous and beautiful, creative and thoughtful. Straightforward memoirs are not eligible, but manuscripts that incorporate theory with personal essays/experiences within a broader context will be considered.

The winner of the Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize will receive a $20,000 advance and a publishing contract with Cassava Republic Press. Two runner-up writers will each receive a $5000 advance and publication by Cassava Republic Press, bringing the total prize value up to $30,000.

“We take immense pride in launching the Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize as we take steps to addressing a long-overlooked gap in the literary world. The prize builds on the long tradition of Black women writers as theorists and intellectuals, and provide a platform for a range of writers from Africa and the Afro-diaspora to follow in the footsteps of luminaries such as Anna Julia Cooper, Amy Jacques Garvey, Claudia Jones, Noni Jabavu, Audre Lorde, Ellen Khuzwayo, May Ayim, Toni Morrison and bell hooks, who have come before”, said Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Publishing Director at Cassava Republic Press, announcing the launch of the Prize.

The manuscript prize, open to Black women writers aged 18 and over living anywhere in the world is sponsored by Alitheia Capital, the largest woman-owned impact investing private equity firm in Africa, and Open Society Foundation Africa.

Submissions should include five sample chapters and a pitch letter, which should include a synopsis and a full outline of all chapters. Longlisted authors will then be given a week to submit full manuscripts. 

Cassava Republic Press was founded at Abuja, Nigeria in 2006, and has established itself as one of the most successful publishers in Africa. It has published some of the continent’s finest authors, including Chigozie Obioma (whose novel The Fishermen was short-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize), Elnathan John (whose debut novel Born On A Tuesday won a Betty Trask Award in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Republic Of Consciousness Prize), and Ayesha Harruna Attah.

Applications for the Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize close at 23:59GMT on June 30th 2024. To learn more, click here: