Deadline: 26th January 2023 (12:00 GMT)
The AKO Caine Prize Award for African Writing 2023 is now accepting applications. Don’t pass up this fantastic chance!
Through its yearly literary award, the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing seeks to make African writing more widely known. In addition to managing the Prize, they help young authors from Africa break into the mainstream publishing industry.
With the help of this yearly literary prize, the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, a registered charity, hopes to make African writing more widely known. In addition to managing the Prize, they strive to introduce readers to African authors through a number of open forums.
More so, they support aspiring authors in Africa by hosting the annual Caine Prize writers’ workshop, which is held in a different African nation every year and aims to introduce them to the world of mainstream publishing.
Benefits
From among the qualifying submissions, the panel of judges will read, consider, and shortlist five stories. The authors who have been nominated will receive invitations to attend events in London, such as:
- Lunch in private with publicists, editors, publishers, and agents
- readings in public and panel talks
- interviews with members of the press and media organizations, as well as an invitation to the award event in 2023 where the winner will be revealed.
Four writers who were shortlisted will get £500 apiece, and the winner will receive a cash reward of £10,000.
Eligibility
- The story published within the five years prior to the submissions deadline in order to be eligible. The judges will only take into account work published between 1 February 2018 and 25 January 2023 for 2023 eligibility.
- Entries must be at least 3,000 words long but not more than 10,000.
- Publishers required to submit entries. This covers book publishers, both physical and digital, as well as literary periodicals, magazines, and websites dedicated to the literary arts.
- The age of the authors at the time of submission must be at least 18.
- Unpublished and independently published works are ineligible.
- As long as they don’t submit more than one story by a single author, publishers are encouraged to submit several short stories.
- Only one submission of a story may be made for the AKO Caine Prize. Unfortunately, this means that even if your story wasn’t chosen for the shortlist, you cannot submit it again for consideration.
- The following genres are excluded from entry: children’s stories, nonfiction, academic essays, plays, poetry, and autobiography/biography.
- Submissions must include the author’s nationality as well as the word count of the short story.
- A “publisher’s letter” must be uploaded by publishers with each submission.
Visit AKO for further information
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