The British Science Fiction Association has announced the shortlists for the 2025 BSFA Awards for work published in 2025, and five African authors have made the cut across four categories.

When the longlist was announced in January, Brittle Paper reported that African writers had dominated with 30 nominations. The shortlist confirms that several of those nominations have held. The winners will be announced at Iridescence, this year’s Eastercon, at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel from 3 to 6 April 2026. Voting is open to all BSFA members and Iridescence attendees until 23:59 on Friday, 3 April.

The five African authors and their shortlisted works are:

Best Collection

  • Cheryl S. Ntumy (Ghana) — Black Friday (Flame Tree Press)

Best Non-Fiction (Short)

  • Eugen Bacon (Australia/African descent) — “Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity: Finding the Self in Other” (Strange Horizons)

Best Shorter Fiction

  • Tade Thompson (Nigeria/UK) — “The Apologists” (Clarkesworld)
  • Wole Talabi (Nigeria/Australia) — “Descent” (Clarkesworld)

Best Fiction for Younger Readers

  • T.L. Huchu (Zimbabwe/UK) — Secrets of the First School (Tor)

The Best Shorter Fiction category is the standout: two Nigerian writers shortlisted in the same category, with Thompson and Talabi going head to head. Talabi’s “Descent”, a Sauútiverse novella about an exploration mission on a planet of sonic storms, has been having a remarkable awards run, appearing on the Locus Recommended Reading List, the Nebula Recommended Reading List, and now the BSFA shortlist. Thompson’s “The Apologists,” published in Clarkesworld in November 2025, marks another strong year for a writer who has been consistently recognised in British SFF circles since his Rosewater trilogy.

Cheryl S. Ntumy’s Black Friday, a collection of short fiction from Flame Tree Press’s Beyond and Within series, brings Ghanaian speculative fiction into a shortlist that has historically skewed heavily towards British and American writers. T.L. Huchu’s Secrets of the First School, the latest instalment in his Edinburgh Nights series, continues his run as one of the most consistently shortlisted African writers in British genre fiction. Eugen Bacon’s critical essay in Strange Horizons rounds out a strong showing for African voices not just in fiction but in the critical conversation around speculative literature.

BSFA members and Eastercon attendees can vote for the BSFA Awards via the voting form.