The K & L Prize 2021: Madness ($1000 New Zealand + Publication)

Writers,

You can now send in your short story Entries for the 2021 K and L prize on the theme, Madness.

The K and L prize, founded and sponsored by New Zealand based Nigerian writer, Myles Ojabo, awards $1000 (New Zealand) to the best piece of unpublished fiction.

The inaugural edition was awarded to South African writer, Sisca Julius, for her story, Honey Bee. The second edition was awarded to Nigerian writer, Kanyisola Olorunnisola, for his story, Abija, the Architect of Mayhem.

Theme

Madness

The term could mean insanity or aberrant behaviour, depending on how the writer interprets it.

Deadline for the K & L Prize 2021

March 21, 2021

Eligibility for K & L Prize 2021

• Only African writers are eligible to submit
• Writers must be between 18 and 25 years of age
• No entry fee
• Stories should be centered on the theme

Submission Guidelines for the K & L Prize 

• Entries must not have been previously published.
• Email subject should have the name of the short stories, age of the applicant, and ‘2021 K and L prize’.
• Submissions must be in English and should reflect the theme, ‘Madness’.
• Only one entry per writer is allowed.
• Stories must not be more than 2000 words.
• The submission should be in Microsoft Word.
• Entries should be sent to id.ojabo@gmail.com.

By Submitting to K & L Prize 2021, Entrants Agree to the Following Requirements;

• Only the winner is entitled to have the cash prize of 1000 New Zealand dollars. In the case where there are joint winners, the prize money will be shared.
• Writers that eventually make the longlist are required to submit a copy of their birth certificate.
• Stories of writers on the longlist would be publicized and published in the K and L Anthology: Full Moon.
• Every writer on the longlist will get a free e-copy of the anthology.   
• Writers that eventually make the shortlist would be offered an interview session.
• Writers that make the shortlist would be asked to submit their photos and other information necessary for publicising the prize.
• All finances raised from sales of the anthology would go towards funding and developing the K and L Prize. 
• The decisions of the judges’ entries are final.

Prize for the K & L Prize 2021

• $1000 (New Zealand)
• Publication for longlisted stories
• Free e-copy of Anthology for all longlisted writers

To learn addition of narrative arc to your story, you can click here or here to get ideas on writing a short story.

Judges for K & L Prize 2021

Sisca Julius

Sisca is a South African English and Afrikaans writer who has written short stories for BKO magazine, New Contrast, and Nuwe Afrikaanse Prosaboek. She has published poems in Stanzas and opinion pieces for Herri Magazine and Living While Feminist. In 2013, 2014, and 2015 she won the PUK Chancellor’s trust prize for Prose, and in 2015 the PUK Chancellor’s Trust prize for poetry. In 2019 she won the K and L Prize for African Literature and graduated from Sol Plaatje University as the top achieving student for the 2019 academic year. She is currently doing her postgraduate degree in Afrikaans literature. 

Su’ur Agema

Su’ur Su’eddie Vershima Agema is a husband and father, an editor, publisher, cultural enthusiast, and development worker. He was listed on Nigerian Writers Award’s 100 Most Influential Nigerian Writers under 40 (2017 and 2018) and EGC’s Top 50 Contemporary Poets Who Rocked Nigeria (2012-17). He was also recently Curator, Black History Month/Project and founding President, African Writers [Society] at the University of Sussex in England, the United Kingdom where he earned a second master’s in International Education and Development under the esteemed Chevening scholarship scheme. He is also the convener of the Benue Book and Arts Festival, a past chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (Benue State Chapter), and a former coordinator of the National Teen Authorship Scheme covering six states in Nigeria. Agema is the author of Home Equals Holes: Tale of an Exile (Winner, Association of Nigerian Authors’ Prize for Poetry, 2014); The Bottom of another Tale (Shortlist, Abubakar Gimba Prize for Short Stories, 2015); Once Upon a Village Tale (Shortlist, Association of Nigerian Authors’ Children’s Literature Prize); and Bring our casket home: Tales one shouldn’t tell (Nominee, Association of Nigerian Authors’ Prize for Poetry 2013). Among other awards, he also won the Mandela Day Short Story Prize (2016) and was shortlisted for the Saraba/PEN Nigeria Poetry Prize 2013, Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Prose Fiction (2014), and the Soyinka Prize for African Literature (2018). He is the chief executive/lead editor at SEVHAGE Publishers, and team leader/lead researcher at SEVHAGE Literary and Development Initiative.

Myles Ojabo

Myles Ojabo is a New Zealand based Nigerian writer. He holds both masters and doctoral degrees in creative writing from the Auckland University of Technology. He found the K and L prize in 2018. Ojabo is the author of Black River (Longlist, Nommo Ilube Prize for Fiction. 2019; Shortlist, Association of Nigerian Authors [ANA] Prize for Prose, 2018).  

 Good Luck!