Here is a list of short story competitions for African writers 2025. Also, you can submit to the short story competitions in Africa 2025.
Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
Here is a compiled list of short story competitions for African writers 2025 that are available to African writers to submit their entries.
Short Story competitions for African writers are often organized by literary societies, platforms or organisations who are duly committed to promoting art and literature in Africa at large.
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Below are some tips to know while submitting entries for a writing contest or competition in Africa 2025
- Check the eligibility requirements. Requirements in respect of age, publication, education qualification are something to make sure of. Failure to meet any of the requirements may lead to error in submission.
- Check the deadline. This is very essential.
- Submission Guidelines. So is this.
The compiled list of the short story competitions in Africa 2025 are arranged according to their deadline. Hence, ensure you look up the date while submitting or applying for any of the competitions.
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List Of Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
January Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
1. Table Feast Magazine Literary Competitions 2024
Deadline: January 1, 2025.
Contests & Prizes:
Nano & Micro Contest for Women Writers: $50 for winners in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction; work featured on merchandise. Entry fee: $3 (waivable). Poetry max 14 lines; prose max 200 words. Submit up to 6 poems or 2 prose pieces.
Fifty & Up Writer Awards: $50 + $1/year over age 50. Fee-free for poetry (2 pages max) and prose (500–2,000 words). Submit up to 5 poems or 1 prose piece.
Translations Prizes: $250 for winners in poetry and prose. Entry fee: $5 (waivable). Poems (2 pages max); prose (500–2,000 words).
2. Steinbeck Fellows Program Awards for Writers 2025
Deadline: January 5, 2025.
Prizes: $15,000 stipend for one academic year (September–May).
Eligibility: Open to emerging writers of fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and biography (no poetry). Applicants must reside in the San Francisco Bay Area or nearby counties during the fellowship. Prior extensive publication is not required.
Entry Fee: None.
Requirements: Writing proposal (1–3 pages), résumé, 25-page writing sample, and three recommendation letters.
Submission: Applications accepted from September; awards announced in May.
Fellows must present their work publicly and engage with the university’s creative writing program.
3. The Bournemouth Writing Prize 2025
Submit your original, unpublished work (short stories or poems) by January 15, 2025, for a chance to win:
Short Story Prize: £500 + an hour-long consultation with Greene and Heaton agent, Laura Williams.
Poetry Prize: £500 + an hour-long feedback session with Dithering Chaps publisher.
Deadline: January 15, 2025
Entry Fee: $10
Open to writers worldwide aged 16+.
Categories: Short stories (up to 3,000 words) and poetry (up to 3 poems, 30 lines each).
Entries judged anonymously; no personal details on submissions. Winners receive 2 free tickets to Bourn Jammy event, publication in the Bournemouth Journal, and a free anthology copy.
4. Nieman Fellowship 2025
Deadline:
International Applicants: December 1, 2024.
U.S. Applicants: January 31, 2025.
Prizes: $1,325/week stipend for fellows not supported by employers; free furnished apartment if required.
Eligibility: Open to journalists, publishers, technologists, academics, and others with projects advancing journalism. No academic prerequisites or age limits. Must reside in Cambridge, MA, for the fellowship.
Entry Fee: None.
Fellowship Duration: 4–12 weeks (Visiting) or one academic year.
Submission: Online application, résumé, and project proposal addressing how Harvard’s resources will benefit the project.
5. Bristol Short Story Prize 2025
Deadline: January 31, 2025.
Eligibility: Open to all published and unpublished writers worldwide. Entries must be in English, either online or via postal submission.
Rules: Maximum of 4,000 words per story, no personal information should appear on the manuscript. Multiple entries allowed. Free online entries are available for low-income writers.
Prizes: 1st Prize: £1,000, 2nd Prize: £500, 3rd Prize: £250. Each of the 12 remaining shortlisted writers receives £50.
Results: Longlist of 30 stories by March 15, 2025; shortlist of 15 stories by May 15, 2025. Only shortlisted entrants will be notified.
Entry: Submit online or by post to Dr. Carrie Etter, University of Bristol. Follow submission guidelines on the official website.
6. Story Unlikely Annual Short Story Contest 2025
The Story Unlikely Annual Short Story Contest 2025 is open for submissions until January 31, 2025. Open to all writers, there are no genre restrictions, but stories cannot exceed 4,000 words (5,000 for members). Prizes include $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second, and $500 for third. Winning stories will be published on Story Unlikely’s website and potentially featured in the annual magazine. Authors must be subscribed to Story Unlikely’s monthly magazine to qualify. The submission must be emailed to dan@storyunlikely.com by the deadline with the subject line 'Submission: TITLE/GENRE'.
Deadline: January 31, 2025
Eligibility: Open to all writers
Prizes: 1st - $1,500, 2nd - $1,000, 3rd - $500
Entry Fee: Free (subscription to Story Unlikely required for eligibility)
February Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
1. Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2025
Deadline: February 28, 2025.
Eligibility: Open to all, published and unpublished authors worldwide. Story must be original, unpublished, and not previously shortlisted.
Entry Requirements: Short story of up to 3,500 words. Must follow Margery Allingham’s definition of a mystery.
Entry Fee: £18, paid via the CWA Shop.
Submission:
Entries must be anonymous, submitted online via the CWA website. The winner receives £500 and their story published on the CWA website.
July Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
1. Anthology Short Story Competition 2025
Submit original, unpublished short stories (up to 1,500 words) by July 31, 2025, for a chance to win:
First Prize: €1,000 and publication in Anthology magazine
Second Prize: €250
Third Prize: €150
Deadline: July 31, 2025
Entry Fee:
Early Bird: €15 (Nov 2024 - Jan 2025)
Standard: €18 (Feb - Jul 2025)
No age limit or restrictions on theme or style. Stories must be judged anonymously; writer’s name should not appear on the story. Multiple entries allowed with separate fees.
September Short Story Competitions In Africa 2025
1. Anthology Flash Fiction Competition 2025
The Anthology Flash Fiction Competition 2025 is open for submissions until September 30, 2025. Submit original, unpublished flash fiction pieces up to 250 words in any theme or genre for a chance to win a €300 cash prize and publication in Anthology magazine. There are multiple entry fees:
Very Early Bird fee: €8 (November - December 2024)
Early Bird fee: €10 (January - February 2025)
Standard fee: €12 (March - September 2025)
Prizes: €300 and publication in Anthology magazine
Deadline: September 30, 2025
Eligibility: Open to all writers worldwide, any age
List Of Short Story Competitions In Africa 2024
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 January
- The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies 2024
The Steinbeck Fellows Program, endowed through the generosity of Martha Heasley Cox, offers emerging writers of any age and background the opportunity to pursue a significant writing project during their fellowship tenure. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center and the University's creative writing program.
The Steinbeck Fellowship Program is named in honor of author John Steinbeck and is guided by his lifetime of work in literature, the media, and environmental activism. The program offers the opportunity to interact with other writers, faculty, and graduate students, and to share your work in progress by giving a public reading during the fellowship. Fellowships include a stipend of $15,000.
Deadline: January 5, 2024
- Quantum Shorts Flash Fiction Contest 2024
Writers, gear up for the last open call for Quantum Shorts's flash fiction. The contest is free to enter and is accepting submissions until 8 January 2024.
Interested writers are required to craft a story no longer than 1000 words that takes inspiration from quantum physics. The story must also incorporate the phrase “nobody said this was going to be easy”.
- Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction 2024 and Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry 2024
The Madison Review accepts contest submissions from November 1st, 2023 to January 22nd, 2024. Contests will have a submission fee of $10.
Phylis Smart-Young prize in poetry:
Phylis Smart-Young submissions should adhere to poetry submission standards, with the exception the 5-poem maximum. Submissions should be exactly three poems, no fewer and no more, with a maximum length of 15 pages.
Chris O'Malley prize in fiction:
Chris O'Malley submissions are to follow the same standards as all other fiction submissions.
Writers may submit one entry per genre (one short story and/or group of three poems). Updates on the contests can be found on our Instagram and our Twitter feed.
Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction 2024
The finest unpublished short story is awarded $1,000 and publication in the spring issue of The Madison Review!
Deadline: January 22, 2024
- Askew’s Word on the Lake Writing Contest 2023
Whether you’re an established or emerging writer, the annual Askew’s Word on the Lake Writing Contest has a place for you.
Deadline: The contest submission period opens on January 2, 2024, and submissions can be emailed up to midnight Pacific time, January 31, 2024.
The contest offers prizes for nine winners overall, thanks to the generosity of contest sponsor Askew’s Foods:
$200 for First Place in each category (short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), plus a 2024 festival registration package
$125 for Second Place in each category, plus a festival banquet package
$100 for Honourable Mention in each category, plus a festival banquet package
All winning entries will also be published in the 2024 edition of the Askew’s Word on the Lake Anthology. Everyone who enters the contest will receive a copy of the anthology in ebook format (epub, mobi, and PDF), and each contest winner also receives the anthology in print. The 2024 anthology, along with anthologies from previous years, will be available at the festival and online.
Each entry to the contest has a $15 Canadian entry fee, one hundred percent of which goes directly to supporting the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival
- Story Unlikely Annual Short Story Contest 2024
Attention storytellers: we just want good stories! There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc - we don't care as long as it's written and told with quality and care. The story itself cannot exceed 4,500 words. There are no restrictions on age or location of participant, and no need to ask us for permission to participate in the contest - just follow the guidelines below.
What do I win?
A $1,000 $1,500 prize package will be divvied up like so: $750 first place, $500 second place, $250 third place. The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely's website, will be strongly considered for our annual (print) sample magazine, and may be sent out as the bonus story for signing up, which means a lot of exposure to the winner.
Deadline: January 31
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 February
- Dragonblade Publishing's Write Track Competition 2024
The “Write Track” (formerly “The Write Stuff”) Competition is an annual quest to find great talent and reward excellence. Both new and established authors are encouraged to participate for a grand prize of $1,000 and a publishing contract with Dragonblade Publishing.
Submissions cut off February 1, 2024
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 March
- Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize 2024
Cassava Republic's Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize 2024 is currently open for submission. The contest is open to emerging and established Black women (cis, trans and genderqueer) writers globally, and the prize will run till March 31.
The winner of the manuscript prize will secure a publishing contract with Cassava Republic Press and receive a $20,000 advance. The two runners-up will each receive a $5,000 advance and a publishing deal as well.
This prize seeks to reimagine which forms of knowledge are considered “authoritative” by championing writing that collapses the boundary between “creativity” and “scholarship”. Through the prize, Cassava seeks to amplify and unearth the critical ideas that might otherwise remain unpublished or confined to academic circles or niche audiences.
Deadline: March 31
- Indignor House Writing Competition 2024
https://youtu.be/yQp3rUY2oOM?si=n7-EQVCgsF4-DArn
Entries accepted ~ September 2023 – March 2024
The 2023-2024 theme is “Fear.”
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Aea493d49-e1ab-3e44-91c9-3bf4457c7d78
Click the text above to view a PDF about the annual short story competition, including all information regarding rules, regulations, and cash prize awards.
The Indignor House Writing Competition is the perfect place for new authors to practice their craft. Each piece is thoroughly edited and tweaked for perfection. Our feedback covers telling vs showing, the use of active verbs, and other issues that most new authors experience
Deadline: March 2024
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 April
- SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2024 | $4,000 Cash Prizes
SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey) is a biennial competition that celebrates and compensates excellence in flash.
The grand prize winner of The Smokey is automatically nominated for The Best Small Fictions, The Pushcart, Best of the Net, and any other prize we deem appropriate. In addition to all this love, we will pay the grand prize winner $2500. Second place: $1000. Third place $500. Finalists: $100. All finalists and placers will be published in the special competition issue in June 2024.
Deadline: April 30, 2024
- Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest 2024 |$2000+ Cash Prize
100 words or less per entry, including the title if you have one. We use Microsoft Word for the official word count, which treats hyphenated words as one word. We recommend plunking your entry into Word right before submitting it to determine the accurate word count. Just be sure to omit any other info such as your name or the date.
Prizes
1st place: $2,000 USD.
2nd place: Writing coaching package valued at $450 USD.
3rd place: Developmental and diversity editing package valued at $250 USD.
Deadline: April 30, 2024
- Own Voices, Own Stories Award 2024 | $2000+ Cash Prizes
The submissions for the Own Voices, Own Stories Award 2024 are currently open. The award is annually made available to children’s picture book manuscripts written by new authors from historically marginalized groups with the intention of recognizing and amplifying new and diverse voices with underrepresented perspectives.
Prizes
Grand Prize winners will receive a $2,000 cash prize, in addition to a publishing contract with advance and royalties standard for new Sleeping Bear Press authors.
Honor Award winners will receive a $500 cash prize as well as one consulting session with a Sleeping Bear Press editor.
Submissions selected for the Sleeping Bear Press Own Voices, Own Stories collection will be offered a publishing contract.
Deadline: Submissions are open January 2 through April 30.
- Al Blanchard Award 2024 | $100 Cash Prize And More
The New England Crime Bake Committee established the Al Blanchard Award in Al Blanchard's memory to annually honor the best crime short story by a New England writer or with a New England setting.
The Prizes
- $100 cash award.
- Publication in 2024’s Best New England Crime Stories anthology
- Free admission to the Crime Bake Conference.
- A handsome plaque.
- The winner is not required to attend the conference.
Deadline: Deadline for submission is midnight, April 30, 2024.
- The Author of Tomorrow Award 2024 | £1000+ Cash Prizes
The Author of Tomorrow Award, a part of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize is an annual competition designed to find the adventure writers of the future. The award is open to young people, aged 21 and under, who have completed a short piece of adventure writing in English.
Categories
Category 1: age 16-21 years
Prize: £1,000
Young writers must submit a short adventure story between 1,500-3,000 words in length.
Category 2: age 12-15 years
Prize: £250, plus £150 in book tokens for their school, library or charity of choice
Young writers must submit a short adventure story between 1,000-2,000 words in length.
Category 3: age 11 and under
Prize: £100, plus £150 in book tokens for their school, library or charity of choice
Deadline: The 2024 Author of Tomorrow Award will open for submissions on 1st March, 2024 and will close on 30th April, 2024.
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 May
- The Waterston Desert Writing Prize 2024 | $3000 Cash Prize
The Waterston Desert Writing Prize 2024 is currently open for submission. The prize was established in 2014, inspired by author and poet Ellen Waterston’s love of the High Desert, a region that has been her muse for more than 40 years. The Prize provides financial and other support to writers whose work reflects a similar connection to the desert, recognizing the vital role deserts play worldwide in the ecosystem and the human narrative.
The recipient of this year's prize will be awarded $3000 cash prize and a reading and reception at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon on September 26, 2024.
Deadline: The deadline is 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.
- ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction 2024 | $5,000 Cash Prize
The ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association ("ABA"), sponsors the annual ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction (the "Contest") and it's currently open for submission.
The winner will receive a prize of $5,000.
Deadline: The ABA Journal will accept entries for the Contest through May 15, 2024.
- The Yeovil Literary Prize International Writing Competition 2024
The Yeovil Literary Prize international writing competition opens on 1st January 2024 and closes on 31st May 2024. Winners will be announced on their website on 30th September 2024. The categories are poetry, short story, novel, children and adult novel.
- The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing 2024|$10,000 and publication
The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing was created in 2015 to honor outstanding debut literary works by first-generation immigrants, awarded for fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. The winner receives $10,000 and publication by Restless Books.
Deadline: Submissions for the 2024 Prize in Fiction will be accepted from January 1, 2024, through May 31, 2024.
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 June
- Bard College's The Bard Fiction Prize 2025 | $30,000 and Writer Residency
The Bard Fiction Prize 2025 is awarded to a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition to a $30,000 cash award, the winner receives an appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for one semester, without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses. The recipient gives at least one public lecture and meets informally with students.
Deadline: Applications for the 2025 prize must be received by June 1, 2024.
- The Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award 2024 | $25,000 Cash Prize
The Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award at Interlochen is presented annually to a book that inspires, illuminates, or exemplifies the creative process in fields such as creative writing, dance, film and new media, music, theatre, and visual arts.
This inaugural award recognizes outstanding works of fiction or nonfiction. The winning author receives a $25,000 cash prize, and will conduct a multi-day residency at Interlochen Arts Academy and join the lineup of the National Writers Series in Traverse City, Michigan. Two runner-up awards of $2,500 may also be presented.
Deadline: The entry form opens on October 16, 2023 and closes on June 1, 2024.
- Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2024
They offer unpublished and unagented writers of children’s fiction the chance to submit their work to the annual Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. They are looking for original ideas, a fresh voice, a diverse range of entries and stories that children will love.
First prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000, plus an offer of representation by this year’s agent judge, Lydia Silver of Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency.
The second prize, the Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award, is a publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 plus an offer of representation by Lydia Silver. The prize will be awarded to a manuscript that shows great potential for film and TV development.
Deadline: Our annual competition opens on 1 December 2023. The deadline for entries will be at 23:59 UK time on 1 June 2024
- The Bridport Prize 2024
Founded in 1973, the Bridport Prize is the Arts Centres flagship project. Attracting many thousands of entries from across the world each year, it has grown to become one of the most widely respected creative writing competitions in the English language.
The competition has four categories: Poetry, Short Story, Flash Fiction, Novel Award.
Deadline: June 2024
- Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors Short Story Contest 2024 | No Entry Fee
Grist is excited to open submissions for the fourth year of our Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors short story contest.
Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world.
There is no cost to enter.
Prizes
The winning writer will be awarded $3,000. The second- and third-place winners receive $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive $300. All winners and finalists will have their story published in an immersive collection on Grist’s website.
They are also partnering with Oregon State University’s Spring Creek Project, which will offer the winning writer (or a runner-up, in the case the winner cannot accept) the opportunity to participate in its Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency, including a writing residency at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek for the winner to spend up to four weeks in residence to continue their climate writing project. The Fellow will receive a $3,000 honorarium from Spring Creek Project.
Deadline: Submissions close June 24, 2024, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time.
- Drue Heinz Literature Prize 2024 | $15,000 Cash Prize and Publication
The Drue Heinz Literature Prize 2024 recognizes and supports writers of short fiction and makes their work available to readers around the world. The award is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals.
Manuscripts are judged anonymously by nationally known writers. Past judges have included Robert Penn Warren, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Rick Moody, and Joan Didion.
Winners receive a cash prize of $15,000, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and support in the nation-wide promotion of their book.
Deadline: Manuscripts must be received during May and June. That is, they must be submitted on or after May 1 and on or before June 30.
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 July
- The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2024 | $1,000 Cash Prize
Exceptionally international in scope, the prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri magazine.
All winners and shortlisted writers will be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility), and a conversation with The Good Literary Agency to discuss their career progression, as well as a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri.
Deadline: Entries must be completed through the submissions form no later than 5pm BST on 1 July 2024.
- The HG Wells Short Story Competition 2024 | $1,000+ Cash Prizes and Publication
The annual HG Wells Fiction Short Story Competition offers a £500 Senior and £1,000 Junior prize and free publication of all shortlisted entries in a quality, professionally published paperback anthology. The competition comprises two separate categories: The Margaret and Reg Turnill Competition & Senior Writing Competition
All entries must relate to the theme for this year’s Competition: The Fool
Deadline: The closing date is Monday 8th July 2024 and entries will be accepted up to 11pm (BST) on that date.
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 August
- The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2024 | Poetry and Short Story
The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award celebrates outstanding writers. The Award was launched after the publication of Aesthetica Magazine, as a way to support the next generation of literary talent. These were first published in the Creative Works Annual, a collection celebrating innovative poetry and short fiction from both established and emerging practitioners. Originally, it was an anthology of new writing and new artwork. However, as the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and the Art Prize started to reach more audiences, the decision was made in 2013 to separate them into two Awards with their own prizes and publications.
Prizes
- £5,000 prize money
- (£2,500 for the Poetry Winner, £2,500 for the Short Fiction Winner)
- Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual
- A five-day course from Arvon (Fiction Winner)
- Two online masterclasses with Arvon (Poetry Winner)
- One-year print subscription to Granta (Poetry & Fiction Winners)
- One-year digital subscription to Mslexia (Poetry & Fiction Winners)
- Six-week writing poetry course from Curtis Brown Creative (Poetry Winner)
- Full membership to The Poetry Society (Poetry Winner)
- A course from the Poetry School (Poetry Winner)
- Consultation with Redhammer Management (Fiction Winner)
- Six-week writing short stories course from Curtis Brown Creative (Fiction Winner)
- Full membership to Litopia (Poetry & Fiction Winners)
- One-year Deluxe Subscription to The London Magazine (Poetry & Fiction Winners)
Deadline: 1 December – 31 August: Entries Open
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 September
- Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest 2024 |$2000+ Cash Prize
100 words or less per entry, including the title if you have one. We use Microsoft Word for the official word count, which treats hyphenated words as one word. We recommend plunking your entry into Word right before submitting it to determine the accurate word count. Just be sure to omit any other info such as your name or the date.
Prizes
1st place: $2,000 USD.
2nd place: Writing coaching package valued at $450 USD.
3rd place: Developmental and diversity editing package valued at $250 USD.
Deadline: September 30, 2024
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 October
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 November
Short Story Competitions For African Writers 2024 December
Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
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Here are a compiled list of short story competitions in Africa 2023 that are available to writers to submit their entries.
Short Story competitions in Africa are often organized by literary societies, literary platform or some sectors in Africa who are committed to promoting art and literature in Africa at large. There's had been some considerable development at which contests are being organized nowadays and kudos goes to the internet for such massive publicity.
Here are some tips to know while submitting entries for a writing contests or competitions in Africa 2023.
The compiled list of the short story competitions in Africa 2023 are the foregoing.
Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
The contests are organized based on the days and months of deadlines.
January Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- European Writing Prize 2023
The European Society of Literature hosts many writing competitions each year, but the European Writing Prize is the most prestigious of them all. The annual competition will help showcase a variety of writers from different backgrounds, and this year marks the first.
The theme is usually quite vague so as to give authors room to add as much of their own individuality and creativity to their pieces as possible.
Submissions will open on 1 October 2022, and will close on 1 January 2023. The longlist will be published 2 weeks later, on 15 January 2023
Theme For The European Writing Prize 2022
The theme for this European Writing Prize is ‘Anxiety’. Writers should incorporate the notion of anxiety into their work however they see fit.
What matters most is whether you submit a fine piece of writing — it isn’t so much about how close to the prize theme you make your work.
Who can submit?
Anyone! Despite ‘European’ being in the title, you can submit a piece of writing regardless of where you are in the world. We only ask that your submission be written in English, as our judges mostly speak that as their first language.
What’s the prize if I win?
- The prize for the winner will be as follows:
- 50 euros paid via PayPal or bank transfer
- Automatic lifetime membership into The European Society of Literature
- Publication in the following quarterly literary journal of TESL
- Potential talks with literary agents — they may scout the shortlist and winners.
- The prestige associated with being victorious! An unmatched opportunity to get your foot in the burgeoning literary industry of Europe and the Americas.
There is no entry fee
- Island Prize For African Writers 2023
Founded by Booker longlisted author Karen Jennings, we are delighted to announce that The Island Prize has opened submissions for its second year running.
The Island Prize is a literary prize that has been curated with the primary aim of helping African writers break into the UK publishing scene. This prize is open to unpublished debut novelists from all African countries, or the diaspora. All short-listed writers will be read by publishers and agents both in the UK, US, and South Africa.
The first year of The Island Prize exceeded all expectations. We received over 120 entries from all over the continent, a fine and diverse long list, and then an excellent shortlist. The winner already has a UK agent as a direct result of the prize, and three books have been offered publishing contracts. The competition has aroused much interest in the UK, and we expect even more this year.
All long-listed authors will receive detailed feedback on their submission, with their entire manuscript being read by industry professionals.
All short-listed authors will receive in-depth editorial attention to their entire manuscript, working closely with publishers, agents, and our judges to ready their work for submittance to agencies and publishers once the winner has been announced.
Prizes For Island Prize For African Writers
Winner – £500
Two Runners Up (Shortlist) – £200
Both the winner and runners up will receive detailed editorial feedback and will be mentored by industry professionals and read by UK and US agents.
Deadline: January 6, 2023
- Nine Dots Prize 2023
The Nine Dots Prize has now revealed the question it will pose as part of a global problem-solving competition, offering US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press for the winning response.
The question for the 2023/2024 cycle is: ‘Why has the rule of law become so fragile?’
First launched in 2016 and now in its fourth cycle, the Nine Dots Prize encourages innovative thinking and engaging new writing that confronts some of the most significant issues of our time. The Prize is judged entirely anonymously and seeks submissions from both established names and emerging talent, including those who may not have been published before.
Entrants must respond to the set question in 3,000 words and provide an outline showing how they would expand their response into a short book of between 25,000-40,000 words, backed up with relevant research and evidence.
The winner will receive editorial support from Cambridge University Press as well as the opportunity to spend a term at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), at Cambridge University, to help develop their ideas and focus on their writing.
Deadline: Monday 23rd January 2023
- Ako Caine Prize For African Writing 2023
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, we 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.
Eligibility Criteria For The Ako Caine Prize 2023
The story must have been published in the five years preceding the submissions deadline. For 2023 eligibility, the judges will only consider work published between 1st February 2018 and 25th January 2023.
Entries must be more than 3,000 words or less than 10,000 words.
Deadline: Thursday 26th January 2023 (12:00 GMT).
- Welkin Writing Prize 2023
From the organizer:
I’m running this competition as a thank you to the writing community which has done so much to support both my writing and my freelance work over the past few years. In September 2022, I was lucky enough to receive a DYCP grant from Arts Council England to fund paid research and writing time, and this competition feels like a small thing that I can do to pay forwards my good fortune. As such, the competition is free to enter and I hope it will be a welcoming space for all writers. The competition is open to all forms of narrative prose, be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem or work that sits outside such labels. There is a whole universe (or welkin) of possibilities.
Prizes For Welkin Writing Prize 2023
The competition will award prizes for:
- 1st place (£150 + annual membership of Writers' HQ worth £190)
- 2nd place (£75 + AdHoc Fiction book voucher worth £25)
- 3rd place (£50 + a copy of "Deflection" by Roberta Beary)
There are additional prizes of £25 for the best non-placed:
writer with a disability or chronic health conditionL, GBTQ+ writer, working class writer, writer whose first (or home) language isn't English carer for an adult dependent, new writer (for a writer with five or fewer publishing credits).
Deadline: 28th February 2023 at 11:59pm GMT.
- Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest 2023
Three times a year, Jerry Jazz Musician awards a writer who submits, in our opinion, the best original, previously unpublished work of short fiction.
The Jerry Jazz Musician reader has interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theater, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-twentieth century America. Our newsletter subscribers include publishers, artists, musicians, and fellow writers. While your writing should appeal to a reader with these interests and in these creative professions, all story themes are considered.
No entry fee is required. One story entry only. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
The contest is open to entrants from anywhere in the world (English language only please)
A prize of $150 will be awarded for the winning story.
Deadline: January 31, 2023
- Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest 2023
Celebrate and participate in the 10th Anniversary of LTHS’ popular program with your fictional story about Little Tokyo. Winners of Adult, Youth (18 and under) and Japanese language categories will receive a special prize of $1,000.
Story submission deadline is January 31, 2023.
The story must be original, fictional, written in either Japanese or English by the submitting author and never been published (even online).
February Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- The Diana Woods Memorial Award 2023
The Diana Woods Memorial Award in creative nonfiction was established in Diana’s memory by her family, friends, and the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA community. Diana Woods Memorial Award serves as a special opportunity for authors worldwide to be published in the literary journal Lunch Ticket. Launched in the spring of 2012, Lunch Ticket is produced by the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA program, an innovative creative writing graduate program devoted to the education of literary artists, community engagement, and the pursuit of social justice.
Twice each year an author of a work of creative nonfiction will be selected for the Diana Woods Memorial Award award by a special guest judge. One author will be chosen for the Summer/Fall issue of Lunch Ticket and one in the Winter/Spring issue. The winning submissions will be published in Lunch Ticket and the recipient will receive $250.
- The Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize 2023
January 3, 2023—Graywolf Press is pleased to announce that the submission period for the fourth Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize 2023 will run from February 1-28, 2023.
The prize will be awarded for a first novel by an African author primarily residing in Africa and will be judged by Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of the Booker Prize short-listed This Mournable Body and the forthcoming Black and Female, in conjunction with the Graywolf editors.
Graywolf Press, a nonprofit American publisher, publishes work that is distinctive, artistically singular, and of a high literary quality. For this prize, the judge and the Graywolf editors are seeking novels that are engaged with the current moment and that approach contemporary issues with innovative prose and fresh perspectives.
Submissions must be full-length, previously unpublished first novels, or first novels published in Africa that have not been distributed or available for sale outside of the continent of Africa.
Deadline: February 28
March Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- Annual BSFS Poetry Contest 2023
The contest deadline is March 1.
Entries should address the themes of science fiction/fantasy/horror/science.
1st prize: $100; 2nd prize: $75; 3rd prize: $50.
Limit: 3 poems/person, maximum 60 lines each.
No entry fee.
- Please no previously published submissions.
- Winners will receive a cash prize, convention membership and be invited to read their winning entries at Balticon. Attendance at Balticon is not required to win.
- Winning poems will be published one time in the BSFAN, the Balticon convention souvenir book. In addition, a pdf version of the winning poems as they appear in the BSFAN will be available on the Balticon Poetry Contest website. Writers retain all rights to their work. By submitting to the contest, entrants agree to these terms
July Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
August Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- Lucky Jefferson Poetry & Prose Summer Contest 2023
Lucky Jefferson is currently accepting submission for its inaugural poetry and prose competition. Interested writers are to read further on the guidelines for submissions.
20 finalists will receive publication in Lucky Jefferson's digital 365 Collection.
Two finalists from that group (one poetry and one prose) will each receive $100, publication, and a swag box.
Deadline: August 1
- The Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction
The Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction 2024 is open to writers for submissions. £2,000 prize for writers worldwide and stories on any topic up to 250 words.
Deadline: Open for entries, 1 June to 31 August 2023
First Prize £2,000
Second Prize £300
Third Prize £150
- Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2023
Aesthetica is looking for the best new writing talent. The £5,000 international literary prize is open to poetry and short fiction entries on any theme, celebrating innovation in content and form.
Deadline: August 31
- Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2023
Aesthetica is looking for the best new writing talent. The £5,000 international literary prize is open to poetry and short fiction entries on any theme, celebrating innovation in content and form.
Deadline: August 31
- The Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award 2023
The Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award 2023 is a £20,000 literary prize recognising outstanding writing. It is open to writers publishing in English in any genre, who publish their work through Kindle Direct Publishing. Readers play a significant role in selecting the winner, helped by a panel of judges including various book industry experts.
Deadline: The Kindle Storyteller Award 2023 is open for entries between 1st May and 31st August 2023.
- The Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2023: The Hungry Tide 30th Anniversary Special
This year, in celebration of Val Wood, they are back with a brand new theme and a brand new judging panel. Having previously been associated with Hull Libraries, the competition is now solely independent and all of its entries will be received by and judged directly by the competition’s namesake, Val Wood.
The winner of the competition will receive £100 and a signed copy of The Hungry Tide. The winning entry will be published on the website valwood.co.uk and shared via various social media outlets.
There will be two further prizes and the winners will receive signed copies of the Hungry Tide upon it’s re-release in October.
Deadline: Entries should be submitted by 5.00pm (BST) 31st August 2023
- The Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing
The Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing is currently open for submission. The entry is free. The 2023 Beauchamp Prize will be judged by Micki Meng.
Entries for the Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing should be a single piece of prose, written in English, not exceeding 1,500 words.
There will be one first place prize of $3,000 dollars, and two runners up, awarded $1,000 each. The winning essay will be featured in GC's printed journal, and the two runners-up will be considered for publication. For previous winners, see the sidebar.
Deadline: August 31st
September Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- Academy For Teachers: Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest 2023
We hold periodic contests that help us highlight the rich, challenging, and underappreciated world of the teachers. Judged by accomplished experts, these contests are open to everyone. Enter for a chance to win a cash prize!
“STORIES OUT OF SCHOOL” FLASH FICTION CONTEST
Teachers have the most fascinating, difficult, and important job on the planet, and their workdays are filled with stories. Yet teachers seldom appear in fiction. This annual contest was created to inspire great stories about teachers and the rich and crazy world of schools.
Deadline: September 1
- The Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts 2023
Lunch Ticket is honored to host The Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts. The Gabo Prize is funded by writers, translators, and Antioch University Los Angeles MFA Alumni Allie Marini and Jennifer McCharen, who launched the prize to support the work of peer translators.
The winner, selected by a guest judge, will receive $200, and the winning piece will be published alongside two semi-finalists in the upcoming issue of Lunch Ticket. The Gabo Prize is awarded twice each year.
Deadline: September 1
- The Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction, Issue 24
Lunch Ticket is honored to serve as the host for the Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction 2023. The submission window for Lunch Ticket’s Issue 24 is August 1st to September 1st.
The winning submissions will be published in Lunch Ticket and the recipient will receive $250
- Mslexia Women's Fiction Competition 2023
This competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 3,000 words.
Prizes
The winner will receive £3,000.
Three additional finalists will each receive £100.
The winning entry and three finalists will be published in the December 2023 edition of Mslexia.
The winning entry, three finalists and eight additional shortlisted stories will also appear in Mslexia’s ebook anthology, Best Women’s Short Fiction 2023, published in December 2022.
Deadline
The deadline for all entries is 23.59GMT, 18 September 2023.
- The César Egido Serrano Foundation 2023
The César Egido Serrano Foundation periodically calls for an International Short Story Contest that is part of the activities that the Foundation carries out to achieve its objective, which is none other than that the word is the tool against all violence and harmony between different cultures, religions and ideologies.
This contest is the best endowed by word in the world with a first prize of $20,000 and three second prizes of $2,000 each. In the last edition, 43,185 authors from 172 countries participated in the contest. On this occasion and as the main novelty, it will be the participants themselves who will have the opportunity and responsibility to choose the winners, through a computerized, random and anonymous voting system.
Deadline: September 30
- The Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award 2023
The Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award 2023 is currently open for submission. The awards are organized by the University of Iowa Press, and are open to previously published writers of prose fiction.
Deadline: September 30
October Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize 2023
$5,000 Fiction | $5,000 Nonfiction | $5,000 Poetry
Winners receive publication, promotion, and a cash prize.
Deadline: October 1
November Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- The ServiceScape Short Story Award 2023
The ServiceScape Short Story Award 2023 is currently open for submission. The award is open to short story writers who wants to contest for the cash prize of $1,000.00 USD.
For this award, any genre or theme of short story is accepted. All applicants should submit their original unpublished work of short fiction or nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer, to be considered.
Along with receiving an award for $1,000.00 USD, the winner will have his or her short story featured within the organizers' blog, which reaches thousands of readers per month. Rules and exclusions apply.
Deadline: November 20
- One Teen Story Contest 2023
One Teen Story publishes 3 stories a year and accepts submissions from teen writers ages 13-19. For a list of writers we have published in the past and short samples of their stories, please visit our past issues page.
For our One Teen Story contest, we ask writers ages 13-19 to enter their original, unpublished fiction. We are interested in great short stories of any genre about the teen experience—literary, fantasy, sci-fi, love stories, horror, etc. What’s in a great short story? Interesting teen characters, strong writing, and a beginning, middle, and end.
The winning stories will be published in forthcoming issues of One Teen Story, which will reach over ten thousand readers. The contest winners will receive $500 upon publication and 25 copies of the magazine featuring their work.
The contest winners will also have the opportunity to work with a One Teen Story editor prior to publication. Honorable mentions will be chosen in three age categories: 13-15, 16-17, and 18-19, and each will be announced on our website, by email announcement, and on social media.
Deadline: November 27th, 2023
- 2024 Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition
To enter the 2024 Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition, ensure read all of the rules and guidelines before submitting your entry. You can find the complete rules and guidelines at us.macmillan.com/minotaurbooks/writing-competitions.
To enter, you must complete this form and upload an electronic file of your Manuscript.
Only electronic submissions, uploaded through this entry form, will be considered; do not mail or e-mail manuscript submissions to Minotaur Books.
Before uploading, please ensure that your Manuscript is formatted as follows:
1) The Manuscript must be either a Microsoft Word document or a PDF
2) Text must be double spaced
3) Pages must be numbered consecutively from beginning to end
4) The Manuscript must be saved as “Manuscript Title_Entrant Name”
Because of the great volume of submissions we receive and the fact that judges are volunteers with full-time responsibilities elsewhere, it is important that you submit your Manuscript as early as possible. Submissions will get a more careful reading if the judge does not have to contend with a flood of last-minute entries.
Deadline: To be considered for the 2024 competition, all submissions must be received by 11:59pm EST on November 30, 2023.
- The Betty Trask Prize 2023
The Betty Trask Prize is currently open for submission to entrants from UK, Ireland and Commonwealth countries. It is open to first novels by authors under 35.
Betty Trask left a bequest to the Society of Authors in 1983 to fund prizes for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 in a traditional or romantic style.
Each year a single prize winner receives £10,000 and the remaining fund is split between the shortlist.
Deadline: The 2024 Betty Trask Prize will close for submissions on 30 November 2023.
The winner of the Betty Trask Prize will receive £10,000 and a fund of £16,200 will be divided equally between shortlisted authors.
- Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest 2023
We are now accepting submissions through November 30, 2023.
The first-place prize has doubled to $2,000 USD.
Word Limit: 100 words or less per entry. Word limit includes the title and introduction, though these are not required.
Entry Limit: You may submit as many entries as you'd like.
Writers: All ages. All genders. All nationalities. All writers welcome.
Genre / Theme: Any genre.
Prizes: 1st place: $2,000 USD.
2nd place: Writing coaching package valued at $450 USD.
3rd place: Developmental and diversity editing package
valued at $250 USD.
Entry Fee: $15 USD.
Deadline: November 30, 2023.
December Short Story Competitions In Africa 2023
- Afritondo Short Story Prize 2024
Another edition of the annual short story competition, Afritondo Short Story Prize 2024, is currently open for submission. This is the 5th year of the Afritondo Short Story Prize and a special landmark for Afritondo.
This year, the organizers want writers to respond to the theme of “fate”. You are welcome to give the theme your own personal interpretation.
As always we are looking for stories that surprise us, that take risks with imagination and language. A good story for our theme will offer unique insight into the theme and explore characters in refreshing and imaginative ways.
The winner will receive a cash prize of $1000. Four other shortlisted writers will get $100 each. The longlist will be published in an anthology in August 2024.
Deadline: December 15, 2023.
- The Masters Review Chapbook Competition 2024
The Masters Review Chapbook Competition 2024
For the fourth year, The Masters Review is open for submissions of literary prose chapbooks! We’re interested in collections of flash fiction, creative nonfiction essays, short stories, and anything in-between. We encourage you to be bold, to experiment with style and form, as long as you stay under 45 pages. One chapbook will be selected as our winner by our guest judge, Michael Martone!
The winner receives a $3,000 cash prize, along with manuscript publication and 75 contributor copies. Our chapbooks are distributed internationally and are available through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. A digital version of the chapbook will be made available to our newsletter subscribers six months to a year after the print publication.
Timeline
Submissions will be accepted between September 1 and December 17, 2023
- 2024 Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award
The Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award celebrates an author whose work embodies the lyrically powerful and historically engaged nature of Dr. Alexander’s writing. We aim for this award to highlight different forms of knowledge production that emerge from the artistic, political, and cultural advocacy undertaken by women of color nationally, transnationally, and globally.
The award is open to all genres, including: poetry, fiction, play scripts, and non-fiction. All submissions will be judged blind, please do not include any identifying information or contact information in your manuscript. A separate title page may be included with your submission, but is not required.
- Lilith Magazine Annual Fiction Contest 2023
Deadline: December 31, 2023
Gifted fiction writers! Lilith magazine—independent, Jewish & frankly feminist—seeks quality short stories with heart, soul and chutzpah, 3,000 words or under, for our Annual Fiction Contest.
First prize: $300 and publication. We especially like fresh fiction with feminist and Jewish nuance, and are eager to read submissions from writers of color and emerging writers of any age
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