Now in its fourth year, the Chautauqua Janus Prize is administered by New York-based Chautauqua Institution and annually “celebrates one emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder literary conventions, historical narratives and readers’ imaginations. Named for Janus, the Roman god who looks to both the past and the future, the prize honors writing with a command of craft that renovates our understandings of both.”

Nigerian writer Enyeribe Ibegwam is the winner of this year’s prize for his short story “After School Hours.” The story has been described as “defying categorization” and having a “hypnotic” effect.

Ibegwam will receive in $5,000 cash award.

Ibegwam is a graduate of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He has received PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for his debut short story and was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His work has appeared in PEN America Best Debut Stories 2019, Prairie Schooner, The Southampton Review, Auburn Avenue, The Georgia Review and Transition Magazine.