Enter for The Ako Caine Prize for African Writing 2022

Deadline:January 31, 2022

 Overview

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual award for a short story by an African writer, published in English, whether they reside in Africa or elsewhere. The winner is awarded a cash prize of £10,000. Four shortlisted writers will receive £500 each.

 Details

The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience using our annual literary award. In addition to administering the Prize, we 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).

It is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc, who was Chairman of the ‘Africa 95’ arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995 and for nearly 25 years Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. After his death, friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of £10,000 to be awarded annually in his memory.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• 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 31st January 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 Self-published and unpublished works are not eligible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

How do I apply?

There is no application form. 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 the work is published in a book or journal, we 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 we would like if possible to receive six copies of the book / journal itself.
• If published in a magazine or journal we will accept one original copy plus five photocopies, but would prefer six original copies.
• If the work is published online, we would like to receive six printed copies.
• Address and post the eligible submission to: The Caine Prize for African Writing, 51 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1RU

The submissions window will remain open from Monday 6th December 2021 to Monday 31st January 2022 at midnight (GMT).

Please note that we have now moved to an online submissions process. See our website for full Rules of Entry and instructions on how to submit for the Prize

Please find the link to the entry form here