Awele Creative Trust has announced the longlist for the 2024 short story award!

The judges have put together an impressive list of twelve contenders for this year’s award:

  • The Lump, Inimfon Kufre
  • Before the Dark, Henrietta Lehi’owo Etta
  • Alien Contradictions, Chioma Deborah Oguadimma
  • Mami Wata, Mbaeze Nnedimma Magreth
  • Burying Greg, Ekemini Pius
  • Is This How We Say Goodbye, Nnamdi Vin-Anuonye
  • How a Girl Learns Shame, Faith Nwani
  • Fly and Corpse, Chinaza James-Ibe
  • The Outpost, Godwin Adah
  • Silent Screams, Halima Abdulazeez
  • The Smell of Dead Things, Azubuike Obi
  • Patron Saint of Dying Waters, Súnmisọ́lá Olúdé

The Awele Creative Trust Award, now in its 10th year, is presented annually to any writer between the ages of 16 and 26, who is resident of Nigeria and has not previously won this award. In this way, the ACT Award highlights new talent from the country on both a national and international stage. With the goal of supporting promising young writers, the award also offers a cash prize of N100,000 as well as a three month writing workshop for the winner.

This short story award is part of the ACT’s ongoing mission to nurture literary creativity and production in Nigeria. The non-profit organization was founded by Nigerian novelist Chika Unigwe (author of The Middle Daughter) in 2013.

Previous winners of the ACT short story award include Joshua Chizoma (2020), Mustafa Enesi (2021), Akunna James-Ibe (2022), and most recently, Olayinka Yaqub (2023), who is set to publish her debut novel The Crimson Vigilante with Masobe Books later this year.

The winner of the 2024 award will be announced in April 2025.