Writivism has announced the 2019 Shortlists for the Writivism Short Story Prize and the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction, featuring five writers from Nigeria and South Africa, with one appearing on both three-name shortlists. While the finalists will each receive $150 and are invited to the 2019 Writivism Festival on 15-18 August, the two winners will each receive $500 as well as a month-long residency at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Founded in 2012 as a program of the Centre for African Cultural Excellence (CACE), Writivism is a literary initiative based in Uganda. In addition to running the two prizes, it organises the annual Writivism Literary Festival. Both the Writivism Short Story Prize, started in 2013, and the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction, started in 2016 and funded by the Koffi Addo family/MAKEDA in Ghana, are worth $500 each.

The 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize: The Shortlist

  • “Ghana Boy” by Frances Ogamba (Nigeria)

Frances Ogamba’s stories appear in Afridiaspora and Writivism’s digital mini-anthology, Dwartonline and YNaija websites, and on Enkare Review. She is a workshop alumnus of Writivism 2016, Ake Fiction 2016, and Winter Tangerine 2016. She lives in Port Harcourt,
Nigeria.

  • “Tale” by Vuyelwa Maluleke (South Africa)

Vuyelwa Maluleke is a Performance Poet, Scriptwriter and Actor, who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand. She was shortlisted for the Brunel University African Poetry Prize in 2014, and is the author of the chapbook Things We Lost in the Fire. A slam champion of the Word and Sound 2015 Poetry League competition with an essay in Selves: An Afro Anthology of Creative Nonfiction, she is currently a Masters in Creative Writing candidate at the University previously known as Rhodes.

  • “Maserumo” by Resoketswe Manenzhe (South Africa)

Resoketswe Manenzhe is a PhD candidate at the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Cape Town. Starting in 2015, her poems and short stories have appeared in several online magazines and journals, and in 2017, two of her poems were shortlisted for the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Anthology and subsequently published in the anthology of selected poems. She currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

  • Notable Mention: “There is Goodness Waiting at Home” by Temitope Owolabi (Nigeria)

The 2019 Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction: The Shortlist

  • “How to Wear Your Body” by Eugene Yakubu (Nigeria)

Eugene Yakubu is a storyteller and cultural critic who lives and writes from Nigeria. He writes essays and non-fiction on non-normative identities, fluid gender roles, and human rights. He is running a graduate research on Queer Studies and LGBTI narratives in African literature at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His nonfiction, “This Hell of a Body,” was shortlisted for the 2019 Gerald Kraak Prize.

  • “The Valley of Memories” by Frances Ogamba (Nigeria)

Frances Ogamba’s stories appear in Afridiaspora and Writivism’s digital mini-anthology, Dwartonline and YNaija websites, and on Enkare Review. She is a workshop alumnus of Writivism 2016, Ake Fiction 2016, and Winter Tangerine 2016. She lives in Port Harcourt,
Nigeria.

  • “The Comedian” by Kanyinsola Olorunnisola (Nigeria)

Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist, and writer of fiction. His work interrogates anxiety, broken lineage, [in]sanity, grief, and the black body as a warfront—you know, typical stuff happy people write about. His debut collection of nightmares, In My Country We’re All Crossdressers, was published as a chapbook by Praxis. He is the founder of the SPRINNG Literary Movement.

The judging panel for the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction includes Christopher Ouma, Karen Jennings, and Ayesha Haruna Attah, who is the chair. The judging panel for the Writivism Short Story Prize includes Emmanuel Sigauke, Kinna Likkimani, and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, who is the chair.

Previous winners of the Writivism Short Story Prize are Uganda’s Anthea Paelo (2013), South Africa’s Saaleha Bamjee (2014), Nigeria’s Pemi’ Aguda (2015), Uganda’s Acan Innocent Immaculate (2016), Nigeria’s Munachim Amah (2017), and Kenya’s Mbogo Ireri (2018). Previous winners of the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction are Ghana’s Yvette Tetteh (2016), South Africa’s Charles King (2017), and Zambia’s Chisanga Mukuka (2018).

All longlisted stories for both prizes will appear in Writivism’s annual anthology. Previous anthologies, some forthcoming, are Picture Frames (2013), Fire in the Night (2014), Roses for Betty (2015), Sundown (2016), And Morning Will Come (2017, forthcoming), and Intersections (2018, forthcoming).

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers.