AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2022
Deadline: 31st January, 2022
Summary: Applications for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2022 are now open. The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English.
Details: 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.
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.
Benefit:
- The winner is awarded a cash prize of £10,000, and the other four shortlisted writers will receive £500 each.
Eligibility:
- The story must have been published in the five years preceding the submissions deadline. For 2022 eligibility, the judges will only consider work published after January 31, 2017.
- Stories less than 3,000 words or exceeding 10,000 words are not eligible for the Prize.
- Short stories must be submitted by a publisher – including publishers of physical and digital literary journals or magazines. Self-published and unpublished works are not eligible.
- Publishers must obtain consent from the writer(s) before submitting their stories for the Prize.
- Stories submitted for the Prize must have been published in English. Translated stories are eligible, provided that an English translation has been published.
- Stories that have been previously submitted for the Caine Prize are not eligible.
- Genres not eligible for entry include stories for children, factual writing, plays and autobiography/biography.
- Submissions must specify which African country the author comes from and the word count.
- Publishers are encouraged to submit multiple short stories as long as they do not submit more than one story by the same author.
Application:
Each story must be submitted by the publisher via the entry form. Short stories that do not meet the criteria will not be considered for the prize.