2023 SHORTLIST

Yejide Kilanko was born in Ibadan, Nigeria. She writes poetry and fiction. Kilanko’s debut novel, Daughters Who Walk This Path, a Canadian national bestseller, was longlisted for the 2016 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Her short fiction is included in the anthology, New Orleans Review 2017: The African Literary Hustle. Kilanko’s latest novel, A Good Name, was published in 2021. Kilanko lives in Ontario, Canada where she practices as a social worker.

Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana author (xe/xem/xer or she/her pronouns). Tlotlo's debut adult novel, Womb City, comes out in January 2024 from Erewhon Books. Xer novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin, is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist and was shortlisted for a 2021 Nommo Award. Tlotlo has received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer story “Behind Our Irises” is the joint winner of the Nommo Award for Best Short Story (2021). Tlotlo's short fiction has appeared in News Suns 2, Africa Risen, The Best of World SF Volume 1, Clarkesworld, Terraform, and Africanfuturism Anthology, and is forthcoming in Chiral Mad 5. Xe obtained a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Botswana and won an award for design architecture. Tsamaase is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Chapman University.

Mame Bougouma Diene is a Franco –Senegalese American humanitarian based in Pretoria, the francophone spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society (http://www.africansfs.com/), the French language editor for Omenana Magazine, and a regular columnist at Strange Horizons. You can find his fiction and nonfiction work in Omenana, Galaxies SF, Edilivres, Fiyah! Truancy Magazine, EscapePod, Mythaxis, Apex Magazine and TorDotCom; and in anthologies such as AfroSFv2 & V3 (Storytime), Myriad Lands (Guardbridge Books), You Left Your Biscuit Behind (Fox Spirit Books), This Book Ain’t Nuttin to Fuck Wit (Clash Media), Africanfuturism (Brittle Paper), Dominion (Aurelia Leo), Meteotopia (Future Fiction/Co-Futures in English and Italian), Bridging Worlds (Jembefola Press) and Africa Risen (TorDotCom). His novelette The Satellite Charmer is translated in Italian by Moscabianca Edizioni, his novelette Ogotemmeli’s Song is translated in Bangla (Joydhak Prakashan). He was nominated for several Nommo Awards, and his debut collection “Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night” (Clash Books) was nominated for the 2019 Splatterpunk Award. 

Woppa Diallo is a lawyer with a specialisation in human rights, humanitarian action and peace promotion. She is a feminist activist committed to social change and the realisation of women’s rights. Woppa founded Association pour le Maintien des Filles à l’Ecole (AMFE) at fifteen in Matam, Senegal, to ensure fair access to education for girls, eradicate gender-based stereotypes, promote sexual & reproductive health, and the continued socialisation of girls-victims of gender-based violence.

Ekemini Pius is a Nigerian writer and editor who lives in Calabar, Nigeria. His works have been published in the Kendeka Prize for African Literature anthology, the K & L Prize anthology, Afro Literary Magazine, and Isele Magazine. His story, ‘Time and Bodies’ was shortlisted for the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature. He was also shortlisted for the 2022 Awele Creative Trust Short Story Prize. He is an alumnus of the 2019 Wawa Literary Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2022 Guest Artist Space Fellowship. He is currently working on his debut novel.

Yvonne Kusiima is a writer from Kampala, Uganda with a degree in Social Sciences. She is interested in the complexities of human societies and aims to shake things up to make this world a better place. She believes stories have the power to change the status quo, one word at a time. Her work has been published in African Writer Magazine, Kalahari Review, Brittle Paper, The Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities and Isele. Her work has been shortlisted for the Isele short story prize (2023).

2023 JUDGES

Fareda Banda is  Zimbabwean law professor based at SOAS, University of London. She writes on women’s rights, family law and more recently law and literature. Amazon.co.uk : fareda banda Her publications include Women, Law and Human Rights Women, Law and Human Rights: An African Perspective: Fareda Banda: Hart Publishing (bloomsbury.com), a co-edited book, with Lisa Fishbayn Joffe on Women’s Rights and Religious Law Women's Rights and Religious Law: Domestic and International Perspecti (routledge.com). Her most recent book, African Migration, Human Rights and Literature. African Migration, Human Rights and Literature: : Fareda Banda: Hart Publishing (bloomsbury.com) explores how art, and specifically literature, can be used as a form of art activism. 

Jendella Benson is a British-Nigerian author and editor. Her debut novel Hope & Glory was published in April 2022 and her short story Kindle was published in The Book of Birmingham collection. She is Head of Editorial at Black Ballad – the award-winning digital magazine and membership community for black women in Britain and beyond – and has written for The Sunday Times STYLE, The Independent and The Telegraph. Originally from Birmingham, she is now based in London and is working on her second novel.

Kadija George Sesay is a Sierra Leonean/British scholar and literary activist. She is the Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, where she commissions anthologies, such as Glimpse, a Black British speculative fiction anthology. She is the editor of several other anthologies and the founder/publisher of SABLE LitMag. She has published poetry, short stories and essays, the latest is in New Daughters of Africa. Her poetry collection is Irki; her forthcoming collection, The Modern Pan-Africanist’s Journey. She is co-founder of Mboka Festival of Arts Culture and Sport in The Gambia and founder of the ‘AfriPoeTree’ app. She is on the board of African Studies Association (UK) and chair of Yaram Arts. She has judged several writing competitions and is the resident judge for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. She has received awards and fellowships for her work in the creative arts including an honorary doctorate from Goldsmiths University. 

Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award–winning visual album Lemonadeand the Disney film Black Is King in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. She also wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising, highlighting the voices and faces of Somali girls in Africa’s largest refugee camp. Warsan Shire lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her full-length debut poetry collection.

Edwige-Renée Dro is a writer, literary translator, and literary activist from Côte d’Ivoire. Her short stories and articles have been published in anthologies such as New Daughters of Africa, Africa39, the Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, This is Africa, etc. As a literary translator, she has mentored emerging literary translators as part of the Bakwa Literary Translation workshop that birthed the anthology: Your feet will lead you where your heart is / Le crepuscule des âmes soeurs. She is also the translator of the anthology Les oiseaux d’eau sur la rive du lac / Water birds on the lakeshore (English and French), the children’s book: Rêve d’oiseau by Shenaz Patel (A Dream of Birds – English), the short story: Petit Pa by Hemley Boum (Little Pa – English), etc. In 2020, she founded 1949: the library of women’s writings from Africa and the black world in Abidjan.

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