Submit to the 2018 African Writers Award


Submissions are invited from writers in Africa for the 2018 African Writers Award, an annually organized award by African Writers Development Trust (AWDT) as part of the African Writers Conference (AWC). 

 The conference annually brings writers of African descent together to network, create opportunities and sustain a conversation that would press forward the shared interests of African writers.

 The theme of this year’s conference, slated to hold in Abuja by December this year, is “Re-imagining African Literature: New Voices, New Narratives in the Fight for the Girl Child”.

 Therefore, writers can send in their flash fiction, short stories, children stories, or poems.

 The maximum lengths for all categories' submissions include:

 Flash fiction - 300 words max.

 Children stories -  1,500 words max. Illustrations could be sent too, but optional.

 Short stories - 2,500 words  to 5,000 words max.

 Poetry - 30 lines max.

 Submissions must be in English and must never have been published anywhere. All entries must be themed-based. You are only allowed to submit one entry per writer. Your submission must include a bio and picture, including links to social media pages, websites, etc.

 You would submit your work by uploading it on the African Writers Conference (AWC) page. Click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page to upload your work.

 Four writers of African descent will win an award each with prize money. The award will be presented at the 2018 AWC dinner and awards night scheduled for December 1, 2018, at 6 p.m. The venue will be communicated later.

 Nyashadzashe Chikumbu, Edith Knight Magak, Kolabomi Adeko, Nahida Esmail, and Anthony Onugba will judge this year’s submissions.

 The deadline for entry submissions is October  13, 2018.
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Enter for 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize worth £15K


The 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, an initiative of Commonwealth Writers, is now open for Short fiction submissions, and entrants have no restriction on setting, grenre or theme for their story.

The competition which also requires no entry fee covers countries* of the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and Pacific. 

The Prize is awarded to the best piece of unpublished short fiction of 2000 to 5000 words in English. Translated entries are eligible, as well as short stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan and Tamil.

Regional winners will receive £2,500, while the overall winner receives £5,000. The translator of a winning short story into English will receive additional prize money.

The five winning stories from the 2019 competition will be published online by Granta.

The submission for the Prize opens on 1st of September, 2018 and will close on 1st of November 2018. 

To find out more about the contest's eligibility criteria and rules, kindly click HERE TO DOWNLOAD. 

Enter for the competition after reading the rules via HERE.


* See Section 4 for countries in the regions mentioned in this story.
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Denja Abdullahi, Soji Cole, Akanji Nasiru make the 2018 NLNG Prize for Literature's shortlist

The three shortlisted plays for 2018 NLNG Literary Prize
The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature has approved and selected a final shortlist of three books out of the longlist of 11 released in July 2018.

The shortlisted drama books, according to the statement issued in Lagos by Manager, Communications and Public Affairs of the prize sponsor, Nigeria LNG Limited, Andy Odeh, on Sunday, 9th of September, 2018, include Embers by Soji Cole, Death and The King’s Grey Hair by Denja Abdullahi and The Rally by Akanji Nasiru.

"Embers, by Soji Cole, focuses on life in one of the Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) Camps in Northern Nigeria. The characters gave testimonies of their ugly encounters in Sambisa Forest, as well as their painful discovery of life in the IDP Camp. A member of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ibadan, Soji Cole teaches undergraduates play writing at the Department of Theatre Arts.

"In Death and The King’s Grey Hair, Denja Abdullahi, a literary essayist and National President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), confronts the issue of perpetuation in power, where rulers, like the king in this drama, employ all sorts of devices to cling on to power, long after they have overstayed their welcome.

"Akanji Nasiru’s The Rally, addresses the contemporary political theme of youth versus age. Nasiru is a professor of Performing Arts, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State." The statement said.

The panel of Judges for the Prize, chaired by Professor Mathew Umukoro of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, and which have a professor of Theatre and Performing Arts and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria Proffessor Mohammed Inuwa Umar - Buratai; as well as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ngozi Udengwu as members, expressed their delight at the high standard of writing evident in the entries for the competition this year.

Prof. Umukoro said, "all three plays have high literary qualities of effective dialogue, good dramaturgical structure, skilful handling of suspense, and credible characterisation, which have seen them through to this stage of the competition."

The International Consultant to the Advisory Board for this year’s prize is Jonathan Haynes, a Professor of English at Long Island University in Brooklyn, who was the founding Director of the West African Center of the Friends World Program (now LIU Global) in Kumasi, Ghana in 2001-2002. He taught at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), Tufts University, Albion College, Bennington College, and Columbia University, and spent three years in Nigeria as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, and University of Ibadan. His specialty is African studies; African film, video, and literature; colonialism and post colonialism; and English Renaissance literature. For two decades, he has been closely following the growth of the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood.

The other member of the Advisory Board, besides Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, are Professor Jerry Agada, former Minister of State for Education, former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, and Professor Emeritus, Ben Elugbe, former President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and President of the West-African Linguistic Society (2004-2013).

Prof. Ayo Banjo assured that his board will retain the high literary standards the prize has already attained ensuring that it remains the most prestigious literary prize in Africa.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has, since 2004, rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2004, poetry), Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto (co-winner, 2004, poetry) for The Dreamer, His Vision; Ahmed Yerima (2005, drama) for his play, Hard Ground; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her book, My Cousin Sammy; Kaine Agary (2008, prose) for her book Yellow Yellow; Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock; Chika Unigwe (2012, prose), with her novel, On Black Sisters Street; Tade Ipadeola (2013, poetry) with his collection of poems, The Sahara Testaments, Professor Sam Ukala (2014, drama) with his play, Iredi War; Seasons of Crimson Blossom, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (2016, prose); and The Heresiad, Ikeogu Oke (2017, poetry).

The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst four literary genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature. The 2018 prize goes to Drama. The prize has a cash value of USD $100, 000 (One hundred thousand United States Dollars). A total of 89 plays were submitted for the 2018 edition prize. A winner will be announced at a public presentation in October.
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Enter for OkadaBooks and Union Bank Campus Writing Challenge to be Judged by two NLNG Winners


Nigeria’s leading e-publisher, OkadaBooks has teamed up with one of the country’s biggest financial institutions, Union Bank of Nigeria, for a writing competition eligible to only undergraduates of the Nigeria's tertiary institutions. 

Entry to the Campus Writing Challenge, worth N960,000 total cash prizes for winners is free and will be judged by two winners of the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature: Chika Unigwe and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.

The contest, which is focused on discovering students with raw, bold and creative writing talents as well as providing them with the necessary exposure to hone their craft and become master storytellers, is expecting each entrant to submit only one story based on the adult genre of adventure, romance, and sci-fi, and that's between 3,000 - 5,000 words via Union Bank’s Website.

The submissions which was opened on 27th of August, will be closed on 7th of October, 2018.

The winning entry will receive a cash prize of N500,000, while the first and second runner up entries will receive N200,000 and N100,000, respectively. 

The contest will also reward 4th best and Audience Favourite entries with N50,000 cash prize each, while the best designed short story cover will go home with N60,000 cash prize.

The winning and shortlisted entries to be announced in December this year, will be sent to top publishing houses in Nigeria for a chance for the winning students to ink publishing deal. The entries will in addition be published in the 1st edition of the Collegiate Anthology to be compiled by OkadaBooks.

About the Judges:

Chika Unigwe has published short fiction in several anthologies, journals and magazines, including Wasafiri (University of London), Moving Worlds (University of Leeds. She won the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition and a Commonwealth Short Story Competition award. In 2004, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. She won the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature; She sits on the Board of Trustees of pan-African literary initiative Writivism, and set up the Awele Creative Trust in Nigeria to support young writers.


Abubakar Adam Ibrahim debuted a short-story collection The Whispering Trees that was longlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014, and shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Ibrahim has won the BBC African Performance Prize and the ANA Plateau/Amatu Braide Prize for Prose. He is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellow (2013). He won the prestigious NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature with his debut novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms in 2016. He has also won the Michael Elliot Award for Journalism, the BBC African Performance Prize, and the Goethe Instut/Sylt Foundation African Writer’s Residency Award, and has been shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. 

To enter for the Campus Writing Challenge, click HERE TO ENTER. 
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Atukwei Okai: Tribute to a Literary Generalissimo | By Wale Okediran




The recent passage of the celebrated Ghanaian poet, Literary Activist and Academic, Professor Atukwei Okai on July 13th 2018 at the age of 77 has robbed the African continent of a passionate and formidable Cultural and Literary ‘generalissimo’. Okai who for several years placed his mental and physical energy at the services of the continental writers body, Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra in his native Ghana after a brief illness.


My paths and that of the consummate Literary icon crossed way back in 1997 when I was the General Secretary of the Association Of Nigerian Authors. On my first meeting with the gangling and energetic Secretary General of PAWA during one of his many forays into Nigeria, I was immediately captivated by his formidable intellect, wit and charm. For Okai, there was no dull moment as he was always full of life and enthusiasm. With ‘Lord Atukwei’ (as I normally called him), I traversed the length and breadth of the African Continent on several missions for PAWA learning from the great man the rudiments of International Diplomacy, Perseverance and the ideals of Loyalty, Family ties and everlasting Friendship. Liberia, Niger, Ivory Coast, Libya, Ghana, South Africa, Mali and of course Nigeria where some of our numerous stops in our endless search for the propagation of African Literature. 

In the course of our numerous trans-continental engagements, we had our fair share of successes, frustrations and occasional failures. Through them all, Okai remained stoic and positive often lacing very difficult and seemingly hopeless situations with regular doses of rib crackling jokes and powerful optimism. On one occasion when the late Professor Festus Iyayi and I were briefly detained in our Accra Hotel by the Ghanaian police on the suspicion of being some long wanted Nigerian criminals, Okai who had been summoned by the terrified Hotel Manager by telephone rather than rush to our rescue broke into a fit of laughter at the other end of the telephone line for quite some time before taking his time to secure our release almost an hour later. When asked why he took that long in coming, Okai broke into another round of laughter and said that he wanted us to have enough experience at the hands of the Ghanaian police for our next novel! On another occasion, Okai and I had arrived too late in the day for dinner in Niamey, Niger Republic. As we were very hungry, he arranged for a taxi cab to take us in search of food. After a long drive in the night, we finally found a canteen that was still open for business. Okai promptly placed our orders. Unfortunately for us, when the food arrived almost an hour later, we could not eat it. Unknown to us, Okai in his halting French had mistakenly ordered for a ‘rare’ grilled plate of steak which was full of blood. Rather than lose his cool at the development, Okai turned the whole incident into a big joke as we finally clawed our way back to the hotel in hunger. 

The only time I saw the tall man lose his cool was sometime in 2014, when he led a PAWA team for a visit for the conferment of the award of PAWA Patron on former President Goodluck Jonathan. In addition to the medal of honour, Okai had come from Ghana with a traditional wooden Ghanaian stool which he said was for President Jonathan to sit on as a sign of honour. He waved off my warning that the State House Security men would not allow the Nigerian President to sit on any strange seat for security reasons. Using all his charismatic and suave diplomatic style, Okai managed to convince the security men at the Presidential Villa’s gate to allow him take the traditional stool into the Council Chamber’s venue of the meeting. After his powerful speech to President Jonathan, Okai gestured towards Professor Chukwuemeka Ike who was also on our entourage to assist him in lowering President Jonathan to sit on the carved ceremonial stool. Suddenly, Jonathan’s ADC moved swiftly and quickly prevented Okai from accomplishing his aim. Okai resisted and for a few seconds, he and the security man struggled for the stool until Professor Ike had to convince Okai to release the stool for the security man. A highly bemused President Jonathan later apologised to a visibly angry Okai for the incident promising that he would seat on the stool once he got home.


Despite his heavy work schedule, Atukwei Okai did not neglect his literary endeavours producing several volumes of poetry which was his favourite literary genre. A powerful performance poet, Okai was always a delight to watch during his poetry renditions where his strong strident voice and scintillating dramatic gestures are brought to play. Even at that, the Literary and Cultural Ambassador still had time for his family and could be seen regularly in the company of his devoted wife, Beatrice and his five lovely daughters at PAWA events especially those that took place in Ghana. The love he had for his children, grandchildren, wife, relatives and friends knew no bounds.

Prof Atukwei Okai, a former President of the Ghana Writers Association, earned his M.A (Litt) from the Gorky Literary Institute, Russia in 1967. In 1971, he took up a post-graduate scholarship from the University of Ghana to earn his Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) in 1971 from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London. He started lecturing at the University of Ghana in 1971, and became Senior Research Fellow in African Literature at the Institute of African Studies. In his young days, he published his work under the name John Okai. His work has been described as “politically radical and socially conscious, one of his greatest concerns being Pan-Africanism.“ He was elected as the first Secretary General of the Pan-African Writers' Association (PAWA) and held that position till he died.


As I prepare to join his family, friends and other Literary enthusiasts in Ghana on September 14 to give him a befitting burial, I briefly pause for a minute’s silence in honour of a great writer, an unflinching advocate for African Literature and a fine human being who shared his spirit and talent with the world. His legacy will live forever in his donation and adulation for the literary and intellectual world. Rest in eternal peace, my friend, teacher and brother.


Dr Wale Okediran, award winning Nigerian author is a Past National President of the Association Of Nigerian Author and a former Member of the Nigerian Parliament.
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