Nigerian writers Ucheoma Onwutuebe and Ola W. Halim have both been named to the 2026 shortlist for the ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious prizes for short fiction. Administered by the Society of Authors and sponsored by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Hawthornden Foundation, the prize is awarded annually for a published or unpublished short story by a writer who has had at least one story accepted for publication. Onwutuebe’s shortlisted entry is titled “MAN”, a story sharing its name with the piece that won her the 2022 Waasnode Fiction Prize, published in Passages North, where judges praised it as a work of “desire, compromise, and what it means to simultaneously lean into and away from intimacy.” Halim’s shortlisted entry is “Palimpsest.”

The two join four other writers on what the judging panel, chaired by author Peter Hobbs, described as “an uncommonly strong shortlist.” Hobbs noted that the six stories ranged from “fantastical high concept, through subtly creeping existential horror, to beautifully delineated realism,” adding that each finalist had passionate supporters on the jury. The full shortlist includes Bhavika Govil for “Folding Your Mother” (Granta Magazine, Jacaranda Books), J.G. Lynas for “King of All Hogs,” Liadan Ní Chuinn for “Amular” (Granta Books), and Gráinne O’Hare for “hell of a bird” (Picador Books).

Onwutuebe is a writer whose career has been marked by steady recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. She has received residencies from Yaddo, Art Omi, and the Anderson Center, and her work has appeared in Catapult, Bellevue Literary Review, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, and Bakwa Magazine, among others. She completed an MFA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has been a recognisable voice in the African literary community for over a decade, with earlier work appearing in Brittle Paper, The Lagos Review, and Agbowó. Halim, whose shortlisting marks a significant moment in a rising career, has, according to Smokelong Quarterly been shortlisted for the Gerald Kraak Prize, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the Kendeka Prize for African Literature. Twice nominated for the Caine and the Pushcart Prizes, he is a 2022 fellow of the Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors.

The ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award has a history stretching back to 1943, financed by a bequest made in memory of playwright and novelist Tom Gallon. Previous winners include Claire Keegan and Alison MacLeod, names that speak to the prize’s reputation for identifying writers of lasting consequence. The winner receives £2,000, with the runner-up taking £1,000 and shortlisted authors each receiving £500. The winner will be announced on June 18 at Southwark Cathedral in London.