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The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States.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.

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.

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.

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:

The Quramo Writers’ Prize, powered by independent Nigerian book publisher Quramo Publisher, is calling on African writers to submit for its 2024 Edition!

Now in its eighth year, the Prize is open to unpublished African writers living within and outside the continent.

Entrants must be at least 16 years old, and the manuscript must be prose fiction with a word count of at least 30,000. Each entry must be an original, unpublished work.

For the context of this prize, an “African writer” is taken to mean someone who is a national of an African country, with a parent who is African by birth or nationality. The Prize is awarded to a fiction prose manuscript by an African writer published in English, whether they reside in Africa or elsewhere. 

The winner of the Quramo Writers’ Prize will receive a monetary prize and a publishing deal. Other writers who make the shortlist will also benefit from a creative writing workshop and miscellaneous prizes.

Created in 2017 as an avenue for fresh writers to showcase their manuscripts to the global literary community and contribute their works to the canonisation of African literature, the Quramo Writers’ Prize celebrates unpublished writers who are working every day to hone their craft and record original stories from the African continent. 

The prize aims to encourage and stimulate a new community of talented writers, providing an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition and encouragement. Previous winners include Samuel Monye’s Give Us Each Day, Ibrahim Babatunde Ibrahim’s Giveaway Bride, Alex Kadiri’s Sunshower and Chiziterem Chijioke’s Dear Zimi.

Quramo Publishing also has a film production wing, where it brings its published books to the big screen and produces commissioned projects.

The submission window, which opened on March 1, closes on May 31, 2024. For more information, click here:

The Women’s Prize for Fiction has announced the longlist for its 2024 edition, and in a delightful turn of events, two African authors were included in the compilation of nominees.

Ethiopian-American author Maya Binyam was longlisted for her debut novel Hangman, while Liberian-born Ghanaian writer Peace Adzo Medie made the list for her second novel Nightbloom.

The 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist comprises a total of 16 titles. The judging panel for the 2024 Prize includes chair Monica Ali, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Laura Dockrill, Indira Varma, and Anna Whitehouse.

In making the announcement, Monica Ali noted the originality and brilliance that permeated each of the longlisted titles.

“With the strength and vitality of contemporary women’s fiction very much in evidence, reading the entries for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction has been a joyful experience. Each one of these books is brilliant, original and utterly unputdownable. Collectively, they offer a wide array of compelling narratives from around the world, written with verve, wit, passion and compassion”, she said.

Maya Binyam is a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Bookforum, Columbia Journalism Review, and The New York Times Book Review, among other publications. She is a contributing editor at The Paris Review, and she has previously worked as an editor at Triple Canopy and The New Inquiry, and as a lecturer in the New School’s Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program. Her book, Hangman, is the tragicomic journey of a man who returns home to sub-Saharan Africa after 26 years of living in exile in America. It is a hilarious and twisted odyssey, peopled by phantoms and tricksters, aid workers and taxi drivers, the relatives and riddles that lead him along a circuitous path towards the truth. 

Peace Adzo Medie is an academic and writer of both fiction and nonfiction. In 2020, she published her debut novel His Only Wife as well as her scholarly work Global Norms and Location Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa. Her longlisted book, Nightbloom, takes a keen-eyed look at family, class and discrimination in Ghana and the US, in this irresistible story of female friendship, the relationships that shape us and the people we never quite leave behind.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the world’s most successful, influential and popular literary prizes, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers. The Prize was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect and reverence given to women writers versus their male peers, creating a platform for exceptional writing by women to shine. 

The Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven. 

The winner of this year’s award will be announced at Women’s Prize Live, taking place on 12th June 2024.

Zambian writer, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. 

Kalimamukwento is the first Zambian to win the literary prize. Perks of this prize include $15,000 in cash and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, with support in the nationwide promotion of her work, a collection of short stories titled Obligations to the Wounded. 

Reacting to the announcement, Kalimamukwento remarked, “This is a prize I have been reading and entering for years, so a win is a kind of ‘Finally’ and ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you’ moment for me.”

Kalimamukwento is a Zambian attorney and writer. She is the winner of the 2022 Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Contest, the 2019 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, and the 2019 Kalemba Short Story Prize. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Adda, Aster(ix), Overland, the Red Rock Review, Menelique, and elsewhere.

Her book, Obligations to the Wounded, employs proverbs and short stories rooted in Zambian languages, culture and place to examine the cost of womanhood through the voices of 12 women and girls The stories illustrate women’s burdens through the lens of religious expectation, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence and racial discrimination.

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is an American literary award for short fiction written in the English Language. Run by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the Prize was initiated in 1981 by Drue Heinz and developed by Frederick A. Hetzel. The award recognises and supports writers of short fiction, and it is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals. Past winners include Stewart O’Nan, Elizabeth Graver, Caroline Kim, Leslie Pietrzyk, and Ramona Reeves.

Manuscripts are judged anonymously by writers who are nationally known in the United States. Past judges have included Robert Penn Warren, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Deesha Philyaw, and Joan Didion. Jane McCafferty is the managing editor for the Drue Heinz Prize, which is announced in February of each year.

Obligations to the Wounded will be published in hardcover October 8th, 2024.