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The shortlist for The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! has been announced. The prize is organised by Black Letter Media, a full service print and digital publishing and bookselling company with “focus on publishing new storytellers who have a unique, powerful and alternative vision of Africa.”

The winning short story will receive R5 000, while the first and second runner-up stories will receive R1 500 and R500 respectively. All the longlisted stories will appear in The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story (Vol. 3), to be launched in late 2017.

Here is the announcement.

After much deliberation, we present you with the shortlisted stories for the 3rd volume of our annual anthology of short fiction, The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story.

As with our previous installments of The Short Story is Dead, we have had the pleasure of engaging with the promising work of some of the emergent writers from the continent; all the stories to be published in this year’s volume reaffirm our belief in the necessity of affording young African writers an opportunity to add their own voices to the ever cacophonous debates that seek to question our present and future. The range of themes and overall quality of the entries continues to greatly impress us.

Here is the shortlist.

  • “Rudo,” by Eliza Mabuza (South Africa)
  • “The Scent of Living Wills,” by Michel Tumuhimbise (Uganda)
  • “Tanganyika ABCs,” by Tina Chiwashira (Zimbabwe)
  • “Petrichor,” by Osemegbe Aito (Nigeria)
  • “Firewater,” by Mary Ononokpono (Nigeria)
  • “Eye Colour” by Mwikali Mutune (Kenya)

We are happy to see on the list a writer we’ve published: Osemegbe Aito. Two of Aito’s stories, “Lunch” in 2015 and “Camp Mars” in 2016, appear on our Website. Congratulations to him.

The judges are Kgauhelo Dube, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, and Sabata-mpho Mokae.

The winners will be announced at the anthology launch. The date is yet to be announced.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted writers.