Paying: May Opportunities for African Writers
Up to $12,000, Publication, Funded Travel, Internships
This newsletter is published every Wednesday.
1. 2025 Cave Canem Prize for Poetry
The Cave Canem Prize is awarded annually to the best debut collection of poems submitted by a Black poet. Launched in 1999 with Rita Dove’s selection of Natasha Trethewey’s Domestic Work, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Cave Canem Prize and a historic moment for the organization.
Deadline: 14 May 2024. Prize: $10,000 + publication
Application details:
All unpublished, original collections of poems written in English by Black poets who have not had a full-length book of poetry published by a professional press, are eligible.
Black authors of chapbooks and self-published books with a maximum print run of 500 may apply.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but they request immediate notification should your work be accepted elsewhere.
One manuscript per poet.
Upload manuscript as a .doc or .pdf document. Include a title page with the title only and table of contents. Author’s name should not appear on any pages within the uploaded document.
Include a cover letter in the Submittable text box—DO NOT include within the .doc or .pdf document of the manuscript. Cover letter should include author’s brief bio (200 words, maximum) and list of acknowledgments of previously published poems.
Manuscript must be paginated, with a font size of 11 or 12, and 60-75 pages in length, inclusive of title page and table of contents. A poem may be multiple pages, but no more than one poem per page is permitted.
Post-submission revisions or corrections are not permitted.
2. The Republic is Hiring Editorial Interns
For 6 months, this editorial intern will rotate across The Republic’s editorial and publishing teams building experience in developing print and digital editorial projects, managing authors and editors, participating in research projects, and working with authors to produce quality writing in line with our style guide.
Deadline: 17th May 2024. | Renumeration: N150,000
Requirements:
Top-tier academic credentials (Republic team members have typically graduated top of their class.)
An analytical writer (editorial or research experience is a plus) with knowledge of and passion for African history.
Demonstrable online and offline networking skills and thrives in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to work remotely and independently while part of a team;
Prior experience writing for a news site helps, as do copyediting skills. You should be a voracious reader who is self-motivated and eager to learn.
To apply:
Send CV and rather than a cover letter, send a 1,000-word essay or article that you can imagine being published on The Republic. This article should adhere to the highest writing/journalistic standards and must be based on the following prompt: ‘An Interesting Thing about Your Neighbourhood That More People Need to Know About’
Send these materials to people@republic.com.ng. Please make the subject of the email: Job Application: Editorial Intern.
3. Call for Submissions - The Africa Migration Report: Anthology
They are requesting for poems and short fiction exploring the personal, familial, communal, national, continental, intercontinental, transnational, past, present and possible futures of African migration across time and space, in and around this world and beyond.
Deadline: 25th May 2024. | Renumeration: Unstated + Publication
Things to note:
Poems should be 40 lines or less, and short fiction,100 words or less.
The poems and short fiction should be on the theme, African migration.Submissions must be in English. In the case of translated work, it is the translator’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder of the original work.
If submitting a poem or short fiction which has been previously published, please give details of where it has appeared and confirm that you are the copyright holder.
Ideally submissions will be typed single spaced and submitted either in the body of an email or as a .doc attachment.
Please include a short biography of 50 words or less.
You may submit a maximum of three poems or three pieces of short fiction or a combination of poems and short fiction. You do not have to submit all three at the same time, but the editors can only consider a maximum of three submissions.
Please send the poems and short fiction to forcedmigrationandthearts@gmail.com.
4. Dream Foundry Annual Emerging Writer’s Contest
This contest is for writers who are relatively new to paid or incoming-earning publication of speculative short fiction in English. Every year their contest coordinator selects ten finalists from a pool of submissions from writers around the world. In addition to their cash prizes, winners get featured at Flights of Foundry, an annual convention where professionals from all over the industry come to discuss all things related to the speculative arts.
Deadline: 27th May 2024 | Prize: Total of $1700
Things to note:
To be Eligible:
You have published a total of less than 4,000 words of paid or income-earning speculative fiction in English.
You have earned a total of less than USD 320 from those words.
You have never been nominated for any award listed here as a major award in speculative fiction.
You are not a previous winner of the Dream Foundry writing contest.
No AI, machine learning, or large language model tools were used in the story except for checking spelling and grammar.
To submit
Submit one complete and finalised story of up to 10,000 words. All entries are final. No revisions are accepted.
No multiple submissions (do not send more than one story.)
Your submission must be previously unpublished at the time of submission, but simultaneous submissions (submitting the story to us while also submitting elsewhere) is allowed.
All entries must be original prose works in English. Plagiarism, poetry, song lyrics, or stories that utilize characters or settings from another person’s works will not be considered.
The manuscript should be in standard manuscript format and should be titled and numbered on every page, but the author’s name MUST BE DELETED from the manuscript file to facilitate fair judging.
Scroll down this page to fill submission form.
5. Essay Contest: The Global Peter Drucker Challenge
This annual essay contest for students, managers and entrepreneurs is inviting essay submissions under the theme: The Next Education. Theme related questions to inform your essay are available here.
Deadline: 31st May 2024, 4:00PM CET | Prize: Total of €4,200, funded travel + benefits
Guidelines:
You must be 18-35 years old (inclusive of both ages)
You can submit one essay to participate as either a student or manager or entrepreneur.
Student: you are a part-time or full-time student (Bachelors, Masters, MBA, or PhD) or you are seeking your first opportunity after the completion of your last degree
Professional: You are a manager of people, projects, budgets, and/or processes; an entrepreneur or business owner; licensed professional; social volunteer or community leader.
Length: 1500 to 3000 (excluding footnotes and any graphics) as PDF or word document.
Font size should be 12pt. Essay written in English and your name must not be included anywhere in the essay.
The essay must be written entirely and exclusively by the participant. The essay must not be written with assistance from tools like Chat-GPT, or any other Generative AI tools or similar software.
6. Cassava Republic African Women Non-Fiction Writing Workshop
This is a 10-day residential workshop of creativity and collaboration, under the theme ‘Taboo’, in Johannesburg in July 2024. The workshop offers writers the opportunity to refine their craft and engage critically with the long tradition of non-fiction writing as they explore their own unique voice. The workshop will culminate in a final essay to be published in an anthology by Cassava Republic Press.
Deadline: 31st May 2024. | Prize: Funded travel + publication
To enter:
The prize is open to all Black women over the age of 18 who live in Africa.
You will need to submit a short pitch letter about your ideas for the topic and the first draft of the essay you will be working on at the workshop, on the theme of Taboo.
Final essays will be a minimum of 5,000 words and should be beautiful, thoughtful, rigorous and bring a fresh insight to the conversation.
Click here to apply.
7. Quramo Writer’s Prize 2024
For this year’s prize, Quramo is inviting unpublished Nigerian and African writers to submit a fiction prose manuscript. The Prize is awarded to a fiction prose manuscript by an African writer published in English, whether they reside in Africa or elsewhere. Each entry must be an original, unpublished work.
Deadline: 31st of May, 2024. Prize: Publishing Deal + N1,000,000
Instructions:
The Prize is only open to unpublished Nigerian and African writers.
The fiction prose manuscript must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant. Published work is not eligible for the prize.
Short story collections, plays, and poetry are not eligible.
Manuscripts must contain a minimum of 30,000 words.
All entrants must be 16 years of age and above.
All entries must be submitted through the submissions portal on the official Quramo website in the following format:
Times New Roman font type. MS Word format. Font Size 12. Left justified. Double line spacing. Page numbers on each page
All submissions must be sent in with the following information:
A one-page synopsis (click link for some guidance on how to write a winning synopsis). A short personal biography of 100 words max. (in third person POV). Social media profiles (Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn). Full (legal) name. Physical address. Email address. Phone number
They do not accept simultaneous submissions. Prior entries for the QWP are also ineligible.
For more instructions and to submit click below
8. 2024 Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-in-Residence Fellowship
This residency program is created in honour of the late Nigerian Professor Tejumola Olaniyan and his intellectual legacy in the field of African literature and critical theory. The residency invites writers to Sharjah, UAE for a period of three months to complete their work
Deadline: 1st June 2024 | Prize: Total of 45,000 AED
How to enter:
All application material should be included in a single pdf (except were the writing sample is a book)
CV/résumé of the applicant
A two-page narrative of the project to be undertaken during the residency period, its significance, and a proposed date of completion.
A sample of published or unpublished writings.
Please name the file with the residency title abbreviation and the applicant’s name in this format: TOCWRP_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME.
Use the same name in the email subject heading and send the PDF as an email attachment to applications@theafricainstitute.org.
9. Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors Writing Contest
Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. We dare you to dream anew.
Deadline: 24th June 2024. Prize: Total of $8,700
Things to note:
The prompt is: In 2,500 to 5,000 words, show us the world you dream of building.
The story should be set sometime between the near future and roughly the year 2200.
Your short story should be uploaded as a word document (.doc acceptable; .docx preferred.) and Word document named as such: title of your story - YEAR; Ex. Story Title - 2024
Your document should not contain any identifying biographical information (including your name).
The first page of your document should include your story’s title and word count at the top in Arial 14-point font.
The rest of your document should be in Arial 12-point font with double line spacing, and at least one-inch margins.
All document pages should include a header in the upper right-hand corner with the correct sequential page number, starting on page 1, and your story’s title.
All authors must be 18 years or older at the time of submission.
Submissions must be written in English. We are not able to translate stories from other languages at this time.
Submissions must not have been previously published, nor received a prize or distinction in another contest.
We do not accept simultaneous submissions (stories can only be submitted to this contest and not to others, until we have informed you of the result).
For other guidelines and to submit, click below
10. The AprilCentaur Prize 2024
The AprilCentaur Network poses as an online literary magazine with an approach to building a network of creatives in multiple fields. They organise contests for the sake of amassing talents, and aim to provide selected participants with a regular and recurring income. They are currently accepting short stories for their second contest.
Timeline: May 1st- 1st July 2024. Prize: Total of $2000
Guidelines:
We only accept one submission per person, so send in your best work.
All participants must be between 16 and 30 years old. T
Word count is 3000-5000.
Please email your submission as a Word document attachment to theaprilcentaurprize@gmail.com. Include a five-line bio in the body of the email. Only previously unpublished works would be reviewed and considered.
For more information see here.
Technical Writing
11. Quicket is Hiring a Technical Writer
Quicket provides Africa's leading ticketing, streaming, and fundraising technology platform. They are looking for a talented Technical Writer to work closely with all departments to extract knowledge and use various sources such as product descriptions, helpdesk interactions, and other company resources to create comprehensive, accessible internal documentation.
Deadline: Unstated | Type: Hybrid (Cape Town). | Renumeration: Unstated
Qualifications:
Experience and Education
Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, Technical Writing, or a related field.
5+ years' Experience in copywriting and technical writing.
Strong interviewing and listening skills.
Excellent command of the English language
Experience in taking in knowledge via all mediums of communication and turning that knowledge into coherent and easy to follow documentation
Experience with Notion and Zoho is preferred.
Prose of the Week
Koala, Koala, Koala | Chantelle Chinwetalu
When my father tells me that my mother’s Corolla has collided with a truck carrying a consignment of wood on Badagry Expressway, I say, “Oh.”
He asks when I can come and I say, “Tomorrow. Or maybe Thursday.” I am sitting at my desk as…
Poetry of the Week
Cook-A-Thon | Oluwadurotimi Adeyemo
In the kitchen of lies,
they cook us drudgery hope that
got us salivating for years to come.
Heads have queued underneath
the naked sun licking away…
Thanks for diving into our newsletter! Don't miss out—subscribe now (if you haven’t) for a weekly curated list including writing competitions, publishing opportunities, grants, fellowships, and content crafted to fuel the growth of African writers. Join the literary journey!
Libaku malamu (Good luck—Lingala, Northern Congo)