Are you an independent thinker who decided to make your mark on the globe? In that case, you must take advantage of the “The AKO Caine Prize Award for African Writing” opportunity open for the academic year 2023-2024.

The opportunity is an annual literary award open to candidates from all African countries over 18 years of age at the time of submission. The AKO Caine Prize Award for African Writing will provide a £10,000 prize to the winning writers.

The Caine Prize was first granted in 2000 to the Sudanese author Leila Aboulela for her short story “The Museum” at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare. In its first year, the Prize drew access from 20 African countries. The Caine Prize believes that a literary prize for African writers will show the creative spirit of Africa and her humanity globally.

Why should you apply to this program? The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a documented charity seeking to obtain African Writing to a broader audience operating our annual academic award. The Prize works to secure readers with African writers via a series of public events and to support rising writers in Africa to enter the globe of mainstream publishing through the annual Caine Prize writers’ workshop, which brings residents to a foreign African nation each year.

Application Deadline: 26 January 2023.

Brief Description

• University or Organization: AKO Caine Prize
• Department: NA
• Course Level: Prize
• Award: £10,000
• Access Mode: Online
• Number of Awards: NA
• Nationality: African country
• The award can be taken in the United Kingdom.

Eligibility

• Eligible Countries: All African country candidates are eligible to apply.
• Acceptable Course or Subjects: The AKO Caine Prize Award will be awarded for African Writing.
• Admissible Criteria: To be eligible, the applicants must meet all the following/given criteria:
• The story must have been published five years before the submission deadline. For 2023 eligibility, the judges will only consider work published between 1 February 2018 and 25 January 2023.
• Entries must be more than 3,000 words or less than 10,000 words.
• A publisher must submit entries, including publishers of physical and digital books, literary journals, magazines, and literary arts-oriented websites.
• Writers must be over 18 years of age at the time of submission
• Self-published and unpublished works are not eligible.
• Publishers are encouraged to submit multiple short stories if they submit only one story by the same author.
• Stories may only be entered for consideration for the AKO Caine Prize once. Unfortunately, they may only re-submit a story for consideration if it was selected for the shortlist.
• Genres not eligible for entry include stories for children, factual Writing, academic essays, plays, poetry, and autobiographies/biography.
• Submissions must specify which African country the author comes from and the short story’s word count.
• Publishers are required to upload a ‘publisher’s letter’ with each submission.

How to Apply

• How to Apply: Candidates are required to complete their application through the online application portal.
• Supporting Documents: Candidates must provide the following:
• 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.
• Confirm consent from the writer(s) whose stories are being submitted for the Prize.
• Admission Requirements: Submit your entry via our online submission portal – details of which will be released during our submissions period
• Language Requirement: The applicants must be English-speaking individuals.

Benefits

AKO Caine Prize will provide the £10,000 prize for five shortlisted writers to London for a series of events, including public readings, interviews with media institutions, private events with agents, and an invitation to the 2023 award ceremony, where the winner will be announced.

Apply Now