Short Story Day Africa Prize recognizes the best short story submitted for its themed anthology. The prize is worth $1,100. The 2021 anthology is themed “Disruption.” Here are the winners for this year’s prize :
Kenyan Idza Luhumyo for “Five Years Next Sunday” (Winner
Zimbabwean Mbozi Haimbe for “Shelter” (first runner up)
Nigerian Alithanayn Abdulkareem for “Static” (second runner up)
Luhumyo’s story is described as “an intense, multi-layered story featuring a rain queen that invokes and upturns all the familiar tropes about drought, the hair of African women and its supposedly aphrodisiac powers, corruption and greed, love and betrayal.”
Haimbe’s story, “a nail-biting account of a woman’s flight towards safety in a world made hideous by climate disruption,” is praised for being “a moving testament to connection, community, and the power of love.” Abdulkareem’s “Static” “uses light from a collapsing earth to another planet as a vehicle for penetrating and original commentary on neocolonialism and the “exotic”, and the ways in which new hierarchies and patriarchies are invented.”
Luhumyo will receive a cash award of $800, while Haimbe and Abdulkareem will receive $200 and $100 each. Their stories, alongside the other longlisted ones, will be appear in the anthology.
The anthology will be out in September 2021 from US-based publishers Catalyst Press.
Afreecan Read congratulates the writers!
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