The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2021 is a literature prize that is awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English.
The prize was launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally.
For this writing competition, the focus on the short story that reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition.
The team at the AKO Caine Prize stands firmly on the side of equality. The AKO Caine Prize is here to support writers of African descent, to amplify their voices, and to bring new readers to their works.
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In doing so, they are committed to the active support of all African writers regardless of their sexuality, gender, or gender identity and expression.
AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2021
The AKO 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, it works 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. He was Chairman of the ‘Africa 95’ arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995.
Then for nearly 25 years, he was Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. It was after his death that friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of £10,000 to be awarded annually in his memory.
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Deadline for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2021
The deadline to enter the 2021 Prize is 31st January 2021.
Eligibility
- Unpublished work is not eligible for the AKO Caine Prize so that your work needs to be published.
- Submissions should be made by publishers only.
- 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 – the minimum word count for entries is strictly 3000 words and no longer than 10, 000 words, preferably less.
- Each story should be submitted digitally via the entry form published on our website – and a copy sent to [email protected]. [This is a new process introduced this year – any entries sent before we went live with the form will be considered.
How to Apply for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2021
They recently introduced online entries to the prize. To enter a story into consideration for the prize, please submit your entry via the application including a letter from the publisher.
They require and request a single, physical copy of each publication for archival and record purposes to be supplied by the publisher and sent to the office of The Caine Prize for African Writing at: The Caine Prize for African Writing
51 Southwark Street
London
SE1 1RU.
Note, you can do more research on Google.
