2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing
Channel: British Library
Date: 2021-08-06

The annual AKO Caine Prize for African Writing aims to bring African writing to a wider audience, popularising short fiction from authors on the continent and the diaspora. Launched in 2000, the prize is awarded to an African writer of a short story published in English. We’re thrilled to host the 2021 finalists ahead of Africa Writes 2021 (1 - 30 September) in this virtual event where we hear them discuss their inspiration and work.

Come prepared! All shortlisted stories are available online, so you can read them and come ready to pose your questions to the writers. 

Doreen Baingana is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, Tropical Fish, won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, Africa Region. She has published two children’s books as well as stories and essays in numerous international journals. Other awards include a Miles Morland Scholarship, a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency, and in 2021, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant. She co-founded and runs the Mawazo Africa Writing Institute, based in Entebbe, Uganda.
 
Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian-American born in Addis Ababa. She is the winner of the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing. Meron has been published in Zyzzyva, Addis Ababa Noir, Best American Short Stories and The New York Times Book Review,and will appear in the forthcoming anthology Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. A 2019-2020 Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University, her writing has been supported by the International Institute at the University of Michigan, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and Artist Trust. Meron holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, a JD from Yale, and a BA in history from Princeton with a certificate in American Studies. 

Rémy Ngamije is a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer. He is the founder, chairperson, and artministrator of Doek, an independent arts organisation in Namibia supporting the literary arts. He is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia’s first and only publication of its type. His debut novel The Eternal Audience Of One is forthcoming from Scout Press (S&S) in August, 2021. His work has appeared in The Johannesburg Review of Books, American Chordata, Lolwe, and many other publications. He is the Africa Regional Winner of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2020.

Troy Onyango is the founder and editor-in-chief of Lolwe. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Wasafari, Johannesburg Review of Books, Nairobi Noir, Caine Prize Anthology and Transition among others. The winner of the inaugural Nyanza Literary Festival Prize and first runner-up in the Black Letter Media Competition, he has also been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, the Brittle Paper Awards, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

Iryn Tushabe is a Ugandan-Canadian writer and journalist. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Briarpatch Magazine, Adda, and Prairies North. Her short fiction has appeared in Grain Magazine, the Carter V Cooper Short Fiction Anthology, and in The Journey Prize Stories 30. The winner of the 2020 City of Regina Writing Award, she’s currently finishing her debut novel, Everything is Fine Here. 

Kinna Likimani (Chair) is a Director at Odekro, a Parliamentary monitoring organization based in Ghana. She is also the founder of Nsona Books which publishes fiction and textbooks by writers in Ghana. She is a board member of Drama Queens, a feminist and youth-led drama initiative. She also blogs about African literature. Kinna is a feminist and a fervent advocate for inclusion, particularly on engagement with citizens in Ghanaian and African languages. She has degrees from Smith College and Columbia University. She and her brood of boys live in Accra.

In partnership with Africa Writes and the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing