The Women’s Prize for Fiction has revealed its longlist for 2024, showcasing an impressive array of talent. Among the featured authors are Liberian-born Ghanaian writer Peace Adzo Medie and Ethiopian-American writer Maya Binyam. Founded in 1996, the Women’s Prize for Fiction aims to address the disparity in coverage, respect, and recognition afforded to female writers compared to their male counterparts. The prize provides a platform for exceptional writing by women, celebrating the finest full-length books each year. Esteemed past winners include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith, and Ali Smith. This year, the Women’s Prize for Fiction has introduced a new…

The Afrolution Festival 2024 with the theme “African/-Diasporic Pluriverses I.” is set to run in Berlin, Germany from June 27 – 30, 2024. Afrolution is a festival with literature at its core, organised by Each One, Teach One, that has hosted many of Africa’s and Afro-German leading writers in Berlin, Germany since 2018. The event has had panels, readings, poetry performances, as well as events for children and youth primarily at its Each One Teach One e.V. Centre. The festival returned in 2022 after a Covid break in 2019. The 2024 edition, with Afrolution festival director Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard and patroness Tsitsi Dangarembga (2024-2027),…

The longlist for the prestigious Toyin Fálọlá Prize 2024 was announced in Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday, June 6, 2024. The Toyin Fálọlá Prize, awarded by Lunaris, celebrates distinguished African scholar and historian, Prof. Toyin Fálọlá. The prize honors his significant contributions to the understanding and promotion of African cultures, peoples, myths, and histories. Since its inception in 2020, the prize has recognized the literary talents of Abdulrahim Hussani, Fayssal Bensalah, and Tshepiso Mabula. The following writers and their works have been longlisted for the 2024 edition of the prize: The shortlist and winner of the Toyin Fálọlá Prize 2024 will…

Sankara Africa Review is thrilled to announce an open call for flash fiction submissions! We invite writers from across the globe to contribute their short, powerful, and captivating stories that celebrate the diversity, richness, and complexity of African experiences. Submission Guidelines: How to Submit: Submission Deadline: Selection and Notification: Why Submit to Sankara Africa Review? Sankara Africa Review is dedicated to amplifying the voices of African writers and those who write about Africa. Our platform offers a unique opportunity to share your work with a broad and engaged audience, and to be part of a vibrant literary community. We look…

  Applications are now open for the 2024–2025 Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowships. If you are a resident of New York City, this is the perfect chance to apply for this year-long fellowship. Based in Brooklyn, New York, the Center for Fiction is the only nonprofit literary organization in the U.S. solely dedicated to celebrating fiction, and we work every day to connect readers and writers. The Emerging Writer Fellowships offer grants, editorial mentorship, and other opportunities to early-career New York City-based practitioners who are at a critical moment in their development as fiction writers. During…

Damilola Omotoyinbo, Mlamli Tyulu, and Hussani Abdulrahim are the winners of the Writivism Prize 2023 announced on Sunday, April 28, 2024. Writivism, the project of writing as activism, was started by Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, Naseemah Mohamed, and Kyomuhendo A Ateenyi at the Centre for African Cultural Excellence in Kampala, Uganda in 2012. They conducted several activities such as an annual literary festival, literary prizes for fiction (starting in 2013) and nonfiction (beginning in 2016), published anthologies, mentored young writers, and loads more. Writivism Prizes have been won by Resoketswe Manenzhe and Frances Ogamba (2019), Chisanga Mukuka and Mbogo Ireri (2018), Charles King and…

Kai Thomas and Kevin Jared Hosein are on the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 shortlist announced on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is a British literary award created by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors were closely linked to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, generally considered the originator of historical fiction with the novel Waverley in 1814. Founded in 2010 and worth £25,000, it is open to novels published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland, or the Commonwealth. The 2024 jury comprises novelist, columnist, and Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund…

Salon du Livre d’Abidjan runs in the capital of Cote D’Ivoire from May 14 – 18, 2024. The guest country is Kenya. Salon du Livre d’Abidjan (English: Abidjan Book Fair) has been organised by L’ASSEDI or the Association des Editeurs de Côte d’ivoire (English: Association of Publishers of the Ivory Coast) annually since 1999. One of the biggest in West Africa is a trade fair that features many of the players in the book chain, facilitating dialogue between book professionals and the public. It gives a platform for the best in Ivorian books and those of other geographical areas develops commercial…

The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, first awarded in 2016, is an international prize that supports and celebrates the best adventure writing today. The prize named after South African novelist Wilbur Smith and open to writers of any nationality, writing in English, is a production of the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation. Smith’s work specialised in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families.

The shortlist for the inaugural Iskanchi Book Prize, a manuscript prize open to African writers, was announced on Monday, May 6, 2024. Iskanchi Press and Magazine, founded by publisher, journalist, and writer Kenechi Uzor in 2020, has produced several magazine editions of their magazine as well as numerous titles. The platform announced a new initiative called the Iskanchi Book Prize to bring to light the best new writing from the continent. It is open to African writers and seeks to honour outstanding prose and hybrid book manuscripts, offering the winner a publishing opportunity. The shortlist for the new award was announced on…