The Africa Narratives Writing Program is open for submissions for their 2025 literary prize and anthology on the topic Narratives Against Poverty in Africa. 

The program hopes to discover “the rich marrow of African writing talent and make us experience a journey of the best modern African storytelling.” From the prize description:

Africa is dipped in unending wars, violence, hunger, disease, rampant corruption, human trafficking, xenophobia, afrophobia and poverty. Despite these marauding challenges Africa is a beautiful continent of great ancient tribes, anthropologies, histories, cultures, mountains, rivers and the most revered fauna. Africa must always write its own story, her story of both the rich past, beautiful and dark present.

Fifty-two submissions will be compiled into a book anthology and three overall winners will receive cash prizes, opportunities, and other accolades (note, the program is not specific about what the prizes will be).

The three winners will be announced by July 2025 and the anthology will be published in August 2025. Participants will receive PDF copies of the anthology, with paperback versions available to order online.

The African Narratives Writing Program was founded in October 2024 by Zimbabwean poet Mbizo Chirasha. Chirasha is the author of A Letter to the President and Pilgrims of Zame. He is the founder of Writing Ukraine Prize and a UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist (Glasgow University School of Education). He is associate editor at Diaspora(n) online, chief editor at Time of the Poet Republic, founding editor at WomaWords Literary Press, and publisher at Brave Voices Poetry. He has published numerous essays and poems as well as curated and co-edited many collections. The judges for the 2025 prize are fellow Zimbabweans spoken word poet Thandokuhle Cleo Sibanda and fiction writer Rumbi Chen.

Submission guidelines:

  • Only two submissions per genre (poetry, short story and essays/hybrid narratives)
  • Judges/curators expectations are highly critical work that delves onto thematic areas of poverty, hunger, injustice, effects of climate change, corruption, pandemics, effects of war and violence in Africa.
  • Submission length and size: for poetry, a maximum of 40 lines per submission; for short story, a maximum of 4 pages; and for essays, a maximum of 4 pages.
  • Each submission should sent as attachment of word document to [email protected]
  • Each submission must be 12 point font size Times Roman font
  • Include the title of your literary work, genre submitted and your name on your subject line and on each and every page of your submission.
  • Also include your 15 line bio-short profile and a head/shoulder publishable photo image.
  • African writers in (52) African countries and other Africans in the diaspora from the age of 18 and above are eligible to submit
  • Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2025

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Disclaimer: Brittle Paper does not thoroughly vet every opportunity. Please make sure to do your own research prior to submitting.