The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has announced a shortlist of five stories for the 2021 edition.
The 2021 shortlisted stories, which the organisers of the prize described as being of “impressive craft and intelligent language” are ‘Lucky’ by Doreen Baingana (Uganda) published in Ibua Journal, Online in Kampala, Uganda, 2021, ‘The Street Sweep’ by Meron Hadero (Ethiopia) published in ZYZZYVA, Ethiopia, 2018, ‘The Giver of Nicknames’ by Rémy Ngamije (Namibia) published in Lolwe, Kenya, 2020, ‘This Little Light of Mine’ by Troy Onyango (Kenya) published in Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia, 2020, and ‘A Separation’ by Iryn Tushabe (Uganda) published in EXILE Quarterly, Canada 2018.
Tweeting on June 2 at its Twitter handle @CainePrize it said, “We are absolutely delighted to announce the Shortlist for the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing! 🎉🙌🏿 Congratulations to all five of our shortlisted writers 📚
@dbaing01 @remythequill @meronhadero @TroyOnyango @wordsweaver
Read the stories here
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize 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. The focus on the short story reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition.