Namwali Serpell has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. The Zambian-American author of the acclaimed novel The Old Drift is one of the six writers selected from a longlist of seventeen.

Serpell, who won the Caine Prize in 2015, is shortlisted for her short story “Take It.”

At £30,000, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award is the richest prize for a single short story in the English language and is open to any novelist or short story writer from around the world who has been published in the UK or Ireland.

The other shortlisted writers include: Niamh Campbell for “Love Many,” Louise Kennedy for “Sparing the Heather,” Daniel O’Malley for “Simon,” Alexia Tolas for “Grandma’s Porch,” and Shawn Vestal for “Teamwork.”

The 2020 shortlist was chosen by a distinguished judging panel that included David Nicholls, Carys Davies, Diana Evans and Romesh Gunesekera.

Judge Carys Davies described “Take It” as “serious, funny, poignant, and satirical,” adding that it “burns briefly and brightly, with some lovely imagery.”

Another African writer shortlisted for the prize is Petinah Gappah in 2016 for the short story “The News of Her Death.”

The winner would be announced on Thursday, July 2.

Brittle Paper congratulates Namwali Serpell.