Deadline: January 31, 2018
Entries are invited for the Caine Prize for African Writing 2018. The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literature prize awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English. The prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally. The focus on the short story reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition.
‘An African writer’ is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality. The Prize is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere.
About the Prize
The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience using their annual literary award. In addition to administering the Prize, they work to connect readers with African writers through a series of public events, as well as helping emerging writers in Africa to enter the world of mainstream publishing through the annual Caine Prize writers’ workshop which takes place in a different African country each year.
The stories written at Caine Prize workshops are published annually alongside the Prize’s shortlisted stories in the annual Caine Prize Anthology by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in eight African countries including, Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), Gadsen Publishers (Zambia), ‘amaBooks (Zimbabwe) and Langaa (Cameroon).
Benefits
- Winning and short-listed authors will be invited to participate in writers’ workshops in Africa, London and elsewhere as resources permit;
- There is a cash prize of £10,000 for the winning author and a travel award for each of the short-listed candidates (up to five in all). The shortlisted candidates will also receive a Prize of £500;
- The winner is also invited to go to three literature festivals in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria.
Eligibility
- Unpublished work is not eligible for the Caine Prize;
- Submissions should be made by publishers only;
- Only fictional work is eligible;
- Only one story per author will be considered in any one year;
- Submissions should specify which African country the author comes from and the word count;
- They require 6 copies of the work in its originally published version;
- If the work is published in a book or journal, they would like to receive at least one copy of the book / journal and five photocopies; but particularly where several stories are submitted from one anthology they would like if possible to receive six copies of the book / journal itself;
- If the work is published online, they would like to receive six printed copies.
Works not eligible for entry include stories for children, factual writing, plays, biography, works shorter than 3000 words and unpublished work.
Application
- To apply please send six original published copies of the work for consideration to the Caine Prize office including a letter from the publisher;
- If you are not sure whether your work is eligible, please email us for advice on [email protected]
For more information, visit Caine Prize for African Writing.
