Voice Of The Youth Network

The Caine Prize for African Writing 2018

The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience using the annual literary award. 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.

 Benefits

• Cash prize of £10,000 for the winning author and a travel award for each of the short-listed candidates (up to five in all)
• The shortlisted candidates will also receive a Prize of £500
• The winner is also invited to go to three literature festivals in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria
• Winning and short-listed authors will be invited to participate in writers’ workshops in Africa, London and elsewhere as resources permit

 Eligibilities

• Unpublished work is not eligible for the Caine Prize
• Works must be in English. Translated works are also eligible
• Submissions should be made by publishers only
• Only short stories are eligible
• Only fictional work is eligible
• Only one story per author will be considered in any one year
• Submissions should specify which African country the author comes from and the word count
• We require 6 copies of the work in its originally published version
• 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 the work is published online, we would like to receive six photocopies
• Entries should be from an African writer which is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality
• Works not eligible for entry include stories for children, factual writing, plays, biography, works shorter than 3000 words or longer than 10000 words, e-books and digital entries and self-published works

Eligible Regions: Open for only African writers.