The Caine Prize for African Writing has announced the shortlist for its 2026 edition. The writers are Gladwell Pamba from Kenya, Melara Mvogdobo from Cameroon, Akinwande Jordan from Nigeria, Yasmine Zohdi from Egypt, and Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza from Zimbabwe.

This year, over 407 entries from 27 African countries were reviewed to select five standout stories, marking a significant increase in submissions from the 2024 edition. The winner will be awarded £10,000 at a ceremony in London this October, before being celebrated with the Prize in their country of origin.

• Gladwell Pamba (Kenya) for “The Last Shop,” Jahazi Press (2024)
• Melara Mvogdobo (Cameroon) for “Dieu Merci!,” Literatur.Review (2025)
• Akinwande Jordan (Nigeria) for “So Long Now It’s Starting To Look Like Eternity,” Naira Books (2026)
• Yasmine Zohdi (Egypt) for “The Absence of Stains,” The Republic (2025)
• Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza (Zimbabwe) for “The Blue Fighter,” The Shallow Tales Review (2025)

The judging panel, chaired by journalist and broadcaster Bola Mosuro, includes author and editor Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, curator and Stuart Hall Foundation Executive Director Orsod Malik, writer and academic Siphiwo Mahala, and actress, singer, composer, and playwright Sheila Atim MBE.

Mosuro praised the shortlisted stories for the range and force of their storytelling, saying:

“These five shortlisted stories stood out with their originality. Each author packed a powerful punch in their storytelling with tales that were poignant, shocking, moving and even quirky. Congratulations to them all. They’ve been selected from a wealth of talent from across the continent. Hundreds of authors who took us on a roller coaster ride of emotions and through varied literary landscapes. It’s been a joy and privilege choosing the Caine Prize shortlist for 2026.”

This year’s shortlist also reflects the expanding diversity of Africa’s publishing landscape, spanning independent traditional publishers, literary journals, and newer entrants into fiction publishing. Susi Owusu, Interim Director of the Caine Prize, called it “an intense, but a hugely rewarding process,” while Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of the Caine Prize Board of Trustees, noted that this year’s publishers, ranging from Jahazi Press and Naira Books to Literatur.Review, The Shallow Tales Review, and The Republic, share “a devotion to the importance of ensuring literature is accessible and read.”

Each shortlisted story arrives with its own story of discovery. Ahmed Aidarus of Jahazi Press described Pamba’s “The Last Shop” as part of a broader shift in Kenyan writing away from political realism and toward psychological depth, and noted its distinction in being set outside Nairobi. Axel Timo Purr of Literatur.Review called the recognition of Mvogdobo’s “Dieu Merci!” an affirmation of the magazine’s mission to platform voices often left outside the literary mainstream. Naira Books editor Kingsley Alumona praised the poetic language and pacing of Jordan’s story, while Chigozie Obioma, Fiction Editor at The Republic, called Zohdi’s “The Absence of Stains” “in many ways a masterpiece.” Nzube Nlebedim of The Shallow Tales Review said Kundizeza’s “The Blue Fighter” speaks first “to the strength of the artist’s will—and then to the story itself.”

All five shortlisted stories will be published in the annual Caine Prize Anthology alongside work developed at this year’s Caine Prize Workshop, held in Tanzania.

Learn more about their writing in the bios below:

Gladwell Pamba is a PhD student at Concordia University Canada, where she also earned her MA in Creative Writing. She won the Ibua Manuscript Prize in 2024 and the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction in 2025, and has held fellowships with the Oxbelly Writers Retreat, International Literary Seminars, and The African Writers’ Trust. Her work appears in Iskanchi Press, Bakwa, North West Review, Waxwing Journal, The Offing, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel and a short story collection.

Melara Mvogdobo was born in Lucerne in 1972. After studying education and raising three sons, she lived across the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, and Switzerland, teaching traumatized young people and leading workshops in textile handicrafts and tropical cuisine. Her debut novel, Von den fünf Schwestern, die auszogen, ihren Vater zu ermorden, was published in 2023, and her second novel, Grandmothers, was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize 2025.

Akinwande Remilekun Jordan is a Nigerian writer, critic, and editor whose work spans cinema, literature, culture, and politics, with particular attention to African cinema, gender, and the politics of representation. His criticism has appeared in The 49th Street Magazine, What Kept Me Up, Saharan Style, Screen in Transit, and Black Film Wire, where he works as writer and editor. He lives and writes in Nigeria.

Yasmine Zohdi is a writer, translator, and film critic based in Cairo, Egypt, holding an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. A former culture editor at Mada Masr and alumna of Berlinale Talent Press, her work has appeared in Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Bidoun, ArabLit, and The Republic. She is currently working on her first novel.

Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza is a Zimbabwean writer based in Harare. His debut novel manuscript, Freelance, won the 2024 Island Prize for Debut African Fiction. He is an alumnus of the 2025 LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency and currently serves as an Associate Editor at African Writer Magazine.

This year’s shortlist is proof that there’s no single way into African literary excellence, only the discipline to keep writing until the work finds its reader. Congratulations to Gladwell, Melara, Akinwande, Yasmine, and Simbarashe. We’ll be watching closely as October approaches.