The AKO Caine Prize 2023 for African Writing is currently open for submission of the published short stories for the award.
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity aiming to bring African writing to a broader audience using their annual literary award for a published short story by an African Writer. Additionally, 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.
Shortlisted stories of the Caine Prize 2023 will be published in the annual Caine Prize Anthology by Cassava Republic Press in the UK and publishers in African countries.
Eligibility for the Caine Prize 2023
- Writers must be 18 years of age as of 24th November 2022
- Each submitted story must have been published five years before the prize deadline. For 2023 eligibility, the judges will only consider work published between 1st February 2018 and 25th January 2023.
- Entries must be more than 3,000 words or less than 10,000 words.
- Entries must be submitted by a publisher. This includes publishers of physical and digital books, literary journals, magazines or literature-oriented websites. Nevertheless, Publishers are encouraged to submit multiple short stories as long as they do not submit more than one story by the same author, as the judges will only consider one work per writer in any given year.
- Self-published and unpublished works are not eligible.
- Stories may only be entered for consideration for the Caine Prize once, therefore you may not re-submit a story for consideration.
- Children’s stories, factual writing, academic essays, plays, poetry and autobiography/biography are not eligible for the prize.
- Submissions must specify which African country the author comes from and the short story’s word count.
- Publishers should not submit watermarked stories.
Submissions Guidelines for the Caine Prize 2023
- Publishers are required to upload a ‘publisher’s letter’ with each submission.
- Publisher’s letter must include:
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- Name of the writer(s).
- Title of the story or stories being submitted.
- Word count of each submitted story.
- The qualifying nationality of the writer(s)
- The date of publication of the story or stories.
- Confirmation of consent from the writer(s) whose stories are being submitted for the Prize.
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- Submissions must be made through the Caine Prize 2023 Submissions Portal.
Prize
The winner is awarded a £10,000 prize.
The five shortlisted writers are invited to London for a series of events, including public readings, interviews with media institutions, private event with agents, and an invitation to the 2023 award ceremony where the winner will be announced.
Deadline
The closing submission date for the Caine Prize 2023 is January 26, 2023.
Visit The Caine Prize Website for more details.