Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025

Jan 28, 2025 Bell Engel

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards. Call for Submissions.

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards is a competition open every two years. It is open to a wide range of artists from Namibia, and the African diaspora to showcase diverse voices from writers and visual artists in order to foster connections between storytellers and a global audience.

Categories of The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025

The Bank Doek Literary Awards is open to participants under the following categories:

Fiction and Poetry
Nonfiction andVisual Arts

Eligibility Criteria for The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025

Namibian citizens living in the country or in the diaspora (outside Namibia); and
Foreign nationals who permanently reside in Namibia.
Writers, poets, and visual artists from Africa and the African diaspora are asked not to submit fiction or poetry unless they have been specifically requested to do so.
African writers who do not meet the above criteria are encouraged to submit their work to any of the literary magazines curated on The Doek List whenever their respective submission windows open.
In particular, death, grief, and trauma are topics which have been covered extensively in past issues; contributors exploring similar topics are encouraged to find new ways of engaging with such subject matter.
Submissions which are directed at the white gaze are not encouraged.
Storytellers are encouraged to discover fresh narrative territories.

Fiction and Poetry

The following categories of fiction writers and poets may submit their work for consideration:

Narrative (plot)-driven short fiction of any genre that lingers with the reader.
Poetry (written for the page, not performance)

Nonfiction and Visual Arts

The following categories of nonfiction writers and visual artists may submit their work for consideration:

Creative nonfiction that explores the known and the unknown.
Visual art (such as illustrations, graphic design, and photography).
Prospective nonfiction writers and visual artists should read previous issues of Doek to see the themes and topics that have been previously explored.

Submission Guidelines for The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards

The following are the stipulated guidelines for submission of each of the categories:

Fiction and Poetry

Only original work will be considered.
Previously published work (in any medium, including social media or personal blogs) is not accepted.
Novels and manuscript excerpts, film scripts and plays, journalistic reportage or columns, management or business guides, and “self-help” or motivational texts are not eligible for consideration.
Submissions must be written in English.
Writers and poets may use words or phrases from any of Namibia’s indigenous languages provided their meaning can be understood within the text (without resort to glossaries or footnotes).
Submissions, including poetry, may not exceed 4500 words. The minimum word count for fiction is 1500 words; there is no minimum word count for poetry.
Fiction writers can only submit one (1) piece of writing per submission window.
Poets may submit up to five (5) poems in one document per submission window.
Submissions must be typed: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 2.0 line spacing.
The submitted document should only contain the title and the body text of the submission.
No identifying details (name, contact number, or email address) may be used in the filename or be placed anywhere in the submission document.
Submissions can be sent in any of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.docx and .doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and plain text (.txt).
Writers and poets cannot submit to or be considered for two or more categories at any given point in time. Each writer and poet must submit to one category and wait to be told about the final outcome of their submission before submitting again.
Unsuccessful writers and poets can submit to the same category or a different category if their submissions are not accepted for publication.
Simultaneous submissions (submissions which have been sent to other literary magazines) are permitted and should be retracted when accepted for publication elsewhere.
Writers and poets who have been published in Doek must wait six months from the date of their publication before submitting any work (in any category) to the magazine for consideration again.
Writers and poets must be 18 years of age or older at the time of submitting their writings.

Nonfiction

Original works will be considered only. No previously published or plagiarism.
Novels or manuscript excerpts, film scripts or plays, journalistic reportage or columns, management or business guides, and “self-help” texts are not eligible for consideration.
Submissions must be written in English.Writers and poets may use words or phrases from any of Namibia’s indigenous languages provided their meaning can be understood within the text (without resort to glossaries or footnotes).
Nonfiction submissions may not exceed 4500 words. The minimum word count is 1500 words.
Nonfiction writers can only submit one piece of writing per submission window.
Submissions must be typed: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 2.0 line spacing.
Document should contain only title and body text of the submission.
Identifying details not needed (name, contact number, or email address).
Nonfiction submissions can be sent in any of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.docx and .doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and plain text (.txt).
Nonfiction cannot submit to or be considered for two or more categories at any given point in time. Each writer must submit to one category and wait to be told about the final outcome of their submission before submitting again.
Writers and poets who are unsuccessful can submit to the same category or a different category if their submissions are not accepted for publication.
Submitting simultaneously (submissions which have been sent to other literary magazines) is permitted and should be retracted when accepted for publication elsewhere.
Contestants who have been published in Doek must wait six months from the date of their publication before submitting any work (in any category) to the magazine for consideration again.
Participants must be 18 years of age or older at the time of submitting their writings

Visual Arts

Original arts only will be considered.
The visual artists must submit five (5) images from a project in .jpeg, .jpg, or .png format for consideration. If accepted for publication, more images will be requested. (A published project typically has 10-15 images.)
Each image may not be larger than 1.5 MB. Image resolution must be 300dpi. Image width must be exactly 1500px. Height is variable.
Images must use the submission title as their filename and must be numbered sequentially.
Images must not have watermarks on them.
You must submit a short write-up (or abstract) about the project. The write-up may not be longer than 300 words.
Written information must be typed: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 2.0 line spacing. The document should only contain the title and the body text of the write-up.
No contact details (name, contact number, or email address) should be used in the filename or be placed anywhere in the write-up document.
Write-ups can be sent in any of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.docx and .doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and plain text (.txt).
Artists cannot submit to or be considered for two or more categories at any given point in time. Each visual artist must wait for the final outcome of their submission before submitting again.
Any unsuccessful visual artist is free to submit other visual arts projects or written work if their submissions are not accepted for publication.
All visual artists who have been published in Doek must wait six months from the date of their publication before submitting any work (in any category) to the magazine for consideration again.
Every visual artist must be 18 years of age or older at the time of submission.

What do participants stand to gain from Doek?

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards are hosted every two years to celebrate the works of four Namibian literary artists—two writers (fiction and nonfiction), a poet, and a visual artist—published in Doek! Literary Magazine (Doek!). The awards seek to bring a wider Namibian and international audience to the selected works, writers, poets, and visual artists. The awards for winners are:

Each winning literary artist is awarded NAD5000 in cash sponsored by Bank Windhoek.
Competition winners are also presented with a unique trophy commissioned from a Namibian artist.
Those longlisted, shortlisted, and winning literary artists are provided with unique opportunities within their particular fields of creation. Such perquisites may include book prizes, further publication in select anthologies, offers of representation, appearances at literary festivals, participation in creative workshops, access to mentorship programs, exhibitions in local, national, and international galleries, and art residencies in Namibia and abroad.