Longlist: Short Story Day Africa Prize, 2020

The longlist for the seventh annual Short Story Day Africa Prize has been announced!

The prize was founded in 2013, and is open to any African citizen or African person living in the diaspora.

SSDA awards prize money of US$800 (about R13,500) for first place, $200 for second place, and $100 for third place. The previous winners of the prize are Adam El Shalakany, Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor, Sibongile Fisher, Cat Hellisen, Diane Awerbuck and Okwiri Oduor.

Presciently this year’s Prize theme is ‘Disruption’.

The resulting anthology from the longlisted entries, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, will be edited by Rachel Zadok, founder of Short Story Day Africa and author of Sister-Sister and Gem Squash Tokoloshe.

The shortlist – first, second, and third place – will be announced in 2021.

The 2019/2020 Short Story Day Africa Longlist:

1. ‘A Defiant Departure’ by MacSmart Ojiludu – Nigeria

2. ‘Another Zombie Story’ by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola – Nigeria


3. ‘Armando’s Virtuous Crime’ by Najwa Bin Shatwan translated into English by Sawad Hussain – Libya

4. ‘Before the Rains Came’ by Nadia Ahidjo-Iya – Cameroon


5. ‘Before We Die Unwritten’ by Innocent Ilo – Nigeria

6. ‘Between the Hard Earth and Dry Heaven’ by Melusi Nkomo – Zimbabwe


7. ‘Dɔrə’s Song’ by Victor Forna – Sierra Leone

8. ‘Enough’ by Nicholas Dawn – South Africa


9. ‘The Fishtank Crab’ by Genna Gardini – South Africa

10. ‘The Girl Named Uku/phaza/mi/se/ka’ by Philisiwe Twijnstra – South Africa


11. ‘The Girl Who Always Laughed’ by Doreen Anyango – Uganda

12. ‘Kin’ by Masiyaleti Mbewe – Zambia


13. ‘Laatlammer’ by Julia Louw – South Africa

14. ‘Lycaon Pictus’ by Liam Brickhill – Zimbabwe


15. ‘The Mother’ by Jacob M’hango – Zambia

16. ‘Objects in the Mirror Are Stranger Than They Appear’ by Kevin Mogotsi – Botswana


17. ‘Shelter’ by Mbozi Haimbe – Zambia

18. ‘The Sound of Betrayal’ by Idza Luhumyo – Botswana


19. ‘Static’ by Alithnayn Abdulkareem – Nigeria

20. ‘Waiting to Die’ by Yefon Isabelle – Cameroon


21. ‘When the Levees Break’ by Edwin Okolo – Nigeria

Find out more here

Congratulations to all who made the longlist.

SAI Sabouke
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Sai Sabouke is a writer living in New Bussa, Nigeria. He’s a dervish who sees Sufism, history and language as formidable tools for society regeneration. His writing has appeared in Praxis Magazine Online and Agbowo. Sabouke loves beans, coffee and dreams of roasting the entrails of vultures.