The Safal Kiswahili Prize for African Literature has announced a call for submission of manuscripts for its 9th edition. The submission period is open until November 30th, 2024. This year, the overall prize will be awarded to unpublished manuscripts across the categories of fiction, poetry, memoir, and graphic novels.

Founded in 2014 by Dr. Lizzy Attree (Short Story Day Africa) and Dr. Mukoma wa Ngugi (Cornell University) as The Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for Africa Literature, the prize was established to recognize writing in African languages and encourage translation from, between, and into African languages. Over the past eight years, the Safal Kiswahili Prize for African Literature has provided support to Kiswahili authors whose works have subsequently been published.

Of the $15,000 total prize money, $5,000 will be awarded for the best Fiction/Non-Fiction entry and $5,000 for the best Poetry entry. Two additional prizes of $2,500 each will be given to runners-up in either genre. The winning entries will be considered for publication in Kiswahili by Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (Tanzania), who will then work with other regional publishers and distributors to ensure the book has a wide audience. The winning poetry will be translated to English and published by the African Poetry Book Fund.

Writers from East Africa and anywhere worldwide who write in Kiswahili, especially women writers, are encouraged to submit their manuscripts and participate in this year’s awards.

Submission guidelines:

Please send unpublished manuscripts (fiction, poetry, plays, memoir and graphic novels) to: [email protected].

Prose submissions should be limited to between 40,000 – 60,000 words.

Submissions close on November 30, 2024.

For more information, visit the bilingual website https://kiswahiliprize.org.