Writivism

The Writivism Literary Initiative is pleased to announce the 2018 Short Story Prize (sponsored by The Story Club Malawi) longlist of 10 stories selected from almost 500 entries by a team of three judges chaired by Shadreck Chikoti. The other judges are Emmanuel Sigauke and Beatrice Lamwaka.

The 2018 Writivism Short Story Prize longlist features stories by;

Miracle Adebayo is a Nigerian lawyer and teacher who enjoys reading and writing.  She is an alumni of Farafina Class ’16. Her works have been published on Kalahari Review, Brittlepaper and other blogs.  She blogs at www.mimiadebayo.com.

Eric Odong Balson is a film aficionado and speculative fiction writer based in Kampala, Uganda. He is currently working on his second novel. He writes short stories on Medium. His handle is: @ericbalson2015.

Kakinda Maria Birungi participated in Writing Our World’s ‘Young Writers for Peace’ writing project of 2014. She was also shortlisted for the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award, 2016.  She is also a contributor to the recent Writivism Anthology by emerging Ugandan writers; Odokonyero.

Mbogo Ireri is 38 years old and was born in Embu, Kenya. He lives in Nairobi with his wife and son (Although currently he is away on a short job contract in Doha, Qatar). He wrote his first short story, “One False Move” when he was 18 and it was published by BBC Focus on Africa Magazine in 1999. He is a hotelier by profession.

Obinna Jones. Nigerian. Sadly adult. Studying Physics at Imo State University, Owerri. Writes, reads and stalks Facebook celebrities. Has a dream of winning a Nobel prize in Physics or literature or both. Has works of fiction on elsieisy’s blog and sidomexentertainment’s blog.

Mali Kambandu lives in Lusaka, Zambia, with her husband and two children. Mali’s writing influences are Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, but her most cherished book is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. While storytelling came early for her, she didn’t write for pleasure until after university at Juniata College, though the writing courses she took there certainly gave her tools to use in the craft. At Juniata, she once contributed to the literary club magazine, Kvasir. In April 2018, Mali won the Kalemba Short Story Award in its inaugural year for her short story A hand to hold.

Ada Nnadi is an aspiring author, whose favourite pastime is food, music, watching movies and anime. She also likes to hoard eBooks. She has a two-year blog she’s never posted anything on because—Facebook. Her works have appeared in Kalahari Review and Praxis Magazine. She was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria.

Ivana Akotowaa Ofori is a Ghanaian storyteller. Self-styled as “The Spider Kid,” she is a weaver of words in many forms, including fiction, non-fiction and spoken-word poetry. When she is not reading or writing, she is likely to be raving online and in person about frustrations with school and life, or about her great love for the color purple.

Omphile Sharon aka Shaz is a Motswana writer and a poet. She lives in Botswana. Shaz is a daughter, sister, wife, friend and most importantly a mother. Shaz has had her stories and poem appear in two locally produced anthologies. One on tourism and another on Gender based violence. She blogs at http://theelyricwriter.wordpress.com and is an avid reader, knowing that reading is at the heart of being a great writer. She loves to travel, enjoys baking and cooking up a storm, and is an enthusiastic Naturalista.

Sainang Tsotetsi is a South African based author of English and IsiZulu fictional stories. He grew up in a family of story tellers, and eventually fell in love with the art of writing stories. He is more passionate about stories that are unique to African culture and tradition, stories that give Africans a voice. He has since completed an English novel and two IsiZulu novels, which are yet to be published. He is currently spending most of his time writing and reading, mostly African literature, and fantasizing of one day winning a Nobel Prize in literature.

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The longlisted stories will be published by Black Letter Media in the annual anthology. The shortlist will be announced on Monday, July 8, 2018.

Special thanks to our preliminary readers; Troy Onyango, Elena Rodgers, Munachim Amah, Acan Innocent, Pemi Aguda, Nancy Adimora, Kyomuhendo Ateenyi, Charles King, Gaamangwe Joy Mogami, Hilda Twongyeirwe and Esther Mirembe.