Call for Submission: Writivism Literary Prizes

The Center for African Cultural Excellence promotes contemporary African ideas through the arts and culture, specifically the Writivism Literary Initiative, which runs two literary prizes, coordinates an online mentoring programme, publishes annual anthologies, and curates an annual literary festival in Kampala (with outreach activities for schools, hospitals and markets), in collaboration with established writers, publishers, festivals, blogs, universities, nonprofits, philanthropists, podcasts, media outlets and other players in the African literary and arts community.

The Writivism Short Story and Koffi Addo Nonfiction prizes are awarded annually to emerging writers living in an African country, who have not yet published a single-authored book of creative writing.

Each winner:

• takes home USD $500,
• attends a fully funded one-month writing (editing) residency at Stellenbosch University,
• publishes their debut book with Black Letter Media,
• is funded to attend the annual Writivism literary festival in Kampala,
• publishes their winning story in the Writivism annual anthology, and
• participates in the annual two-month online Writivism mentoring programme. 

• takes home USD $150,
• is funded to attend the annual Writivism literary festival in Kampala,
• publishes their shortlisted story in the Writivism annual anthology, and
• participates in the annual two-month online Writivism mentoring programme. 

• publishes their longlisted story in the Writivism annual anthology
• participates in the annual two-month online Writivism mentoring programme. 

Eligibility

There is no entry fee to the prizes. There are no themes for the prizes. 

The Writivism Short Story and Koffi Addo Prizes only accept hitherto “unpublished” entries from writers living in an African country, who have not published a single-authored book by August of the prize year. This includes self-publishing, even if only on one’s blog or social media micro-site, and all forms of creative work.

The age and citizenship of the emerging writer does not matter, they consider the nationality of the writer and residence in an African country during the prize year. In the instance that one’s story is shortlisted, or that they win a prize, they are only able to fund travel from an African country, to Kampala for the festival, and to Stellenbosch for the residency.

At the moment, they consider only works in the English language, and only accept translated work (into English) where the author and translator are the same person. In other words, submit a translated entry only when it is your own original composition in its first language, and you translated yourself, to English.

Current staff, volunteers, and partners of the Writivism Literary Initiative are not eligible for the prizes.

The Entry Manuscript

• The story should be at least 2500 words, and maximum 3500 words.
• The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
• The manuscript should include a title page and word length of the entry, without the author’s personal details like name, address, email address, and country of origin.
• Every writer can submit only one entry for each prize. A double submission to both the short story and nonfiction prizes is encouraged, but strictly only one entry for each.
• All submissions must be made using this form. All information that we need will be asked for on the form.
• The manuscript must be in Microsoft Word or Rich Text format (NO PDFs), typed in Times New Roman font, size 12 point, double-spaced.

• Submission to the prizes is built on the assumption that the entrant is working on a manuscript that we anticipate will be further developed during the one-month residency at Stellenbosch University, and published by Black Letter Media should they win.
• They therefore expect, and require winners to have a complete draft of a manuscript within one month of winning the prize, so that arrangements for the writing (editing) residency can commence soon.
• They are flexible and allow for a period of maximum two and five years after winning the prize to take up the residency and publishing opportunity respectively.
• Theyrequire that the publishing rights for the debut manuscript of a winner of our prizes are by the fact of submission, offered to our publishing partner.
• Where the publishing partner deems that a manuscript does not require substantial development, a winner’s work can be published without attending the residency.

Click here for more information and how to submit.