[London, UK] – The Caine Prize for African Writing, an esteemed annual award honouring outstanding African writers, is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2024 edition. The five shortlisted stories were carefully selected from a pool of 320 entries originating from 28 African countries.
The shortlisted writers for the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing are:
Tryphena Yeboah (Ghana) for ‘The Dishwashing Women’, Narrative Magazine (Fall 2022)
Nadia Davids (South Africa) for ‘Bridling’, The Georgia Review (2023)
Samuel Kolawole (Nigeria) for ‘Adjustment of Status’, New England Review, Vol. 44, #3 (Summer 2023)
Uche Okonkwo (Nigeria) for ‘Animals’, ZYZZYVA (2024)
Pemi Aguda (Nigeria) for ‘Breastmilk’, One Story, Issue #227 (2021)
This year's submissions encompassed a diverse range of talent from 28 different countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Morocco, Gambia, Senegal, Eritrea, Malawi, Liberia, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Libya, Algeria and Cameroon.
Chika Unigwe, Chair of Judges, expressed her thoughts on the shortlist: “The judging process was both challenging and rewarding. We read over 200 eligible stories, uncovering many gems from both familiar and new writers. Our discussions were passionate, and when we reached our (unofficial) longlist, we wished we could have included every story. Our consolation is knowing that these works are out in the world, being read, recognized with other prizes, and receiving the attention they deserve.
“The shortlist and the honorable mention (Zimbabwe’s Yvette Ndlovu), span four countries and include writers at various stages of their promising careers. These stories, ranging from speculative to realistic, cover diverse subject matters but share a common thread: they are compelling, universal human stories. They offer insights into our societies, governments, cultures, and the broader world, ultimately posing the fundamental question that all great art asks: How do we navigate life? They explore this question with empathy, thoughtfulness, humor, and prose that is both sublime and accessible.
“So, how do we navigate life? In these stories, we do so with regrets, survival, performance, resistance, and ultimately, living. Throughout, we strive to be seen. We are incredibly proud of this outstanding shortlist and our honorable mention. Congratulations to all the writers!”
Tom Jenks, Editor of Narrative Magazine commented: “Talent has a way of announcing itself. From the first stories and essays we read by Tryphena Yeboah, we recognized immediately her unique talent and voice, the scope of her ambition, and the wisdom and grace she offers her readers. With great-heartedness, Yeboah’s stories and essays bring an intense, nuanced focus onto the fraught roles and relationships that occur when the known world narrows and grows inimical despite one’s best intentions and desires. Yeboah traverses a previously unexplored land of tribal prejudices and taboos in her native Ghana and honors the personal and historical grief of immigrant families, the generational scars of racism, the joys and complexities of familial love, and the abiding belief that literature can carry us across troubled waters—toward recognition of our shared humanity.”
Gerald Maa, Editor and Director of The Georgia Review said: "What an honor to be shortlisted for such a prestigious, longstanding prize. I make sure to check out the authors honored by the Caine Prize every year, and I'm thrilled that The Georgia Review will be part of that mix this year."
Carolyn Kuebler, Editor of New England Review, publisher of ‘Adjustment of Status’, added: “Kolawole’s story of a Nigerian man’s grueling work in an American morgue reveals the human cost of illegal immigration and the deceptive allure of the West. It’s both potent and understated as it chronicles this man’s deep loneliness and unbearable shame.”
John McMurtrie, Senior Editor at ZYZZYVA was excited at a first Caine shortlisted story for the journal: "We at ZYZZYVA are thrilled that Uche Okonkwo's story 'Animals' has been shortlisted for this year's Caine Prize for African Writing. Uche's writing beautifully captures the rhythms of daily life. She does so with gentle humor and understated grace. We couldn't be more proud of Uche. And we're proud to help celebrate her talents, sharing a distinct African voice with a broader readership."
Will Allison, Contributing Editor at One Story remarked: “I was drawn to ‘Breastmilk’ by the raw honesty of the voice and by the story’s vivid rendering of the early days of parenthood. The protagonists’ fear is one that all parents will recognize—the fear of failing one’s child. It’s a fraught, heart-wrenching situation that Pemi Aguda explores with tremendous depth of feeling in pitch-perfect prose.”
This year marks 24 years since Leila Aboulela was announced as the winner of the inaugural Prize at a small gathering at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, followed a few days later by an official award ceremony and dinner in Zimbabwe.
Over the years, the format of the announcement and award ceremony has changed several times, and this year the Caine Prize is adjusting it once again to re-centre the announcement on the African continent. This will allow the Prize to integrate this year’s shortlisted writers and judges into the year-long celebration of our 25th anniversary in 2025.
The format of this year’s announcement will be as follows:
The winner will be announced on 17th September via a pre-recorded address.
There will be no immediate ceremony; instead, the shortlisted writers will be integrated into the Caine Prize’s 25th anniversary celebrations, participating in a ‘meet the writers’ event, and appearing alongside past winners and shortlisted writers in readings and discussions held at partner institutions. Celebrations will include tribute events for writers such as Charles Mungoshi (Zimbabwe) and Binyavanga Wainana (Kenya), whom we have lost since they won or were shortlisted for the Prize.
All of the shortlisted stories will be published in The Caine Prize Anthology alongside stories written at the Caine Prize Workshop, held this year in Malawi.
Full details of plans for the year-long, multi-country 25th anniversary celebrations will be released at a later date.
Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of The Caine Prize Board of Trustees, expressed her thoughts on this year’s award: “As Chair, I look forward to using the 2024 Prize as an opportunity to amplify my publishing colleagues’ efforts to highlight Africa’s rich writing history and showcasing the best of Africa’s new voices. I hope that this year’s format will spark wide curiosity and interest in past and contemporary literature from the country that birthed and influenced this year’s winner. This fresh approach also ties in with our goal of hosting more events on the continent during our 25th Anniversary celebrations. For 24 years the Prize has helped bring African writers to the literary world stage. We are now taking the world to Africa and its writers. We welcome your encouragement, support, and commitment as we boldly move forward.”
The Caine Prize for African Writing celebrates the richness and diversity of African literature and recognizes outstanding achievements in African storytelling.
Shortlisted Writers’ Bios:
Tryphena Yeboah is a Ghanaian writer and the author of the poetry chapbook, A Mouthful of Home (Akashic Books). Her fiction and essays have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Commonwealth Writers, and Lit Hub, among others. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studying English with an emphasis in Creative Writing.
Nadia Davids is a South African writer, theatre-maker and scholar. Her plays (At Her Feet, What Remains, Hold Still) have been staged throughout Southern Africa and in Europe. Her debut novel An Imperfect Blessing was shortlisted for Pan-African Etisalat Prize for Literature. Nadia’s short fiction and essays have appeared in The American Scholar, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Astra Magazine, The Georgia Review, the Johannesburg Review of Books and Zyzzyva Magazine. She’s held residencies at Hedgebrook, Art Omi and The Women’s Project, and was a 2023 Aspen Words Writer. Nadia has taught at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Cape Town and is the President Emeritus of PEN South Africa.
Samuel Kọ́láwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. He is the author of a new, critically acclaimed novel, The Road to the Salt Sea. His work has appeared in AGNI, New England Review, Georgia Review, The Hopkins Review, Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Harvard Review, Image Journal, and other literary publications. He has received numerous residencies and fellowships and has been a finalist for the Graywolf Press Africa Prize, International Book Award, and shortlisted for UK’s The First Novel Prize, and won an Editor-Writer Mentorship Program for Diverse Writers. He is a graduate of the MFA in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and earned his PhD in English and Creative Writing from Georgia State University. He has taught creative writing in Africa, Sweden, and the United States, and currently teaches fiction writing as an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University.
Uche Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir, among others. She is the author of the debut story collection A Kind of Madness: Tin House (2024); Narrative Landscape (2024); and VERVE Books (2025). A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Pemi Aguda is an MFA graduate from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan and the winner of the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Award. Her writing has been published in One Story, Granta, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, Zoetrope, and other publications, and has been awarded the O. Henry Prize for short fiction in 2022 and 2023. She is the author of a collection of stories, Ghostroots (W.W. Norton, 2024; Virago Press, 2024; and Masobe Books, 2024). Pemi is from Lagos, Nigeria.
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Notes to Editors
Media Contact: comms@caineprize.com
Press Package: Access via Dropbox here