Chika Unigwe, founder of Awele Creative Trust Award. Image from Brown University Blog.

A six-name shortlist has been announced for the 2017 Awele Creative Trust Award, following a four-month period of deliberation. Now in its fourth year, the N50,000 Awele Creative Trust Award is an annual contest dedicated to celebrating short fiction from Nigeria. The award is organised by Awele Creative Trust, an initiative founded by Chika Unigwe, author of the NLNG Prize-winning On Black Sister’s Street.

The shortlisted stories are:

  • “The Goat Thief,” by Famous Ogbewe

  • “With What Mouth Does One Tell This Kind of Story,” by Olakunle Ologunro

  • “The Return,” by Imade Iyamu Oduduwa

  • “This is How You Lose Your Mind,” by Tochukwu Okafor

  • “Solving for X,”  by Dami Lare

  • “Theatre of Tattered Things,” by Adams Adeosun

First awarded to Caleb Adebayo in 2015, the award has been judged by such names as Brian Chikwava, Toni Kan Onwordi, Madeleine Thien, Joe Dunthorne, Chibundu Onuzo, Vamba Sherif, and Monica Arac d’Nyeko.

According to the organisation’s press statement, the shortlisted writers have “embraced the freedom that the  short fiction form offers to experiment, to be innovative, to mix old myths with new ones. Their stories are bold, touching and entertaining. Born between 1993 and 1998, these writers assure us that the future of writing is in good hands with Nigeria’s youth.”

The winner will be announced in May.

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers.