Two Nigerian publishers have teamed up to create a literary prize called Nigerian Flash Fiction Contest. The longlist for the 2017 edition is out. Congrats to all 17 writers for making it this far.

See the longlist of writers after the organizers’ official statement:

AMAB Books & Publishing in Minna and Home of Books Foundation in Lagos are delighted to announce the long list of the 2017 Nigerian Flash Fiction Contest.

This year, we received 76 entries with equal balance of love stories, loneliness and longings, dystopianism, contemplation and other themes that reflect contemporary Nigerian situations. Announcing the contest, we requested for stories woven around ‘abstraction and futurism’. Entrants therefore dug farther into their imagination using their creative abilities.

Our judges- Abimbola Adelakun, University of Texas; Dr. Ismaila Bala, Bayero University, Kano; Uchechukwu Umezurike, University of Alberta and Adeola Opeyemi, Poet & Critic, Lagos- reviewed all the entries and came up with long list of 17 as listed in the table overleaf in no particular order.

All these 17 entries are currently under further scrutiny by the judges to bring out a shortlist of 7 by the end of July 2017. It should be noted that the winner, 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up of this year Contest will be going home with N100,000, N80,000 and N70,000 worth off books respectively.

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Longlist: 2017 Nigerian Flash Fiction Contest

“Still Miracle” by Michael Larry

“The Appeal of Hunting With Dice” by Michael Umoh

“Worthy Metal” by Ifeoluwa Watson

“Gods among Men” by Christian Ojochegbe

“The Last Man Standing” by Deborah Oluniran

“The Moon Fell at Onireku” by Akeem Aribidesi

“Roughshod” by Damilare Bello

“The Day you Lost your Virginity” by Fred Atanda

“This is the End” by Ayodeji Isaac

Uchenna” by Amanda Madumere

Adesuwa” by Erhu Amreyan

“A Call from Heaven” by Adebajo Adekunle

“Planet Jumpers” by Chinua Ezenwa

“A Story of Us” by Agboola Israel

“The Confession” by Hussani Abdulrahim

“One Hundred Tales” by Ogechukwu Samuel

“We Called Him Father Abraham” by Nonso Nnajide