SSDA Releases The Longlist For The $1000 Short Story Day Africa Prize
On the 6th of December 2017, SSDA released the longlist for the $1000 short story day Africa prize. This year they sought after innovative short fiction exploring identity, especially themes surrounding gender identity and sexuality.
This year’s list features stories from all over the continent and diaspora such as ‘All Our Lives’. This story follows nine young men trying to make it in Lagos; ‘Limbo’ takes a woman who works as a scarecrow on a journey of sexual discovery; ‘Borrowed by the Wind’ reflects on masculinity, accountability and violence in a South African context; a young Muslim woman questions the patriarchy and her own sexuality in ‘Fever’; while ‘The Piano Player’ is an interesting reversal of the African going to America trope. Other stories on the longlist tackle notions of love, sexuality, the phenomenon of menstruation, otherness, and mental illness.
The shortlist – 1st, 2nd and 3rd place – will be announced early next year.
The resulting anthology from the longlisted entries, ID: New Short Fiction from Africa, will be edited by Helen Moffett, who will select her editing fellows as part of the SSDA/Worldreader Editing Mentorship, now in its second year. The collection is due for release in July 2018.
Check out the long list below;
1. ‘Limbo’ by Innocent Ilo – Nigeria
2. ‘All Our Lives’ by Okafor Tochukwu – Nigeria
3. ‘Borrowed by the Wind’ by David Medalie – South Africa
4. ‘God Skin’ by Michael Yee – South Africa
5. ‘Who We Were Then, Who We Are Now’ by Nadu Ologoudou – Benin
6. ‘Plums’ by Kharys Laue – South Africa
7. ‘Waiting’ by Harriet Anena – Uganda
8. ‘The Piano Player’ by Agazit Abate – Ethiopia
9. ‘A Brief Eruption Of Madness’ by Eric Essono Tsimi – Cameroon
10. ‘When the War Came Home’ by Heran Abate – Ethiopia
11. ‘Ibinabo’ by Michael Agugom – Nigeria
12. ‘Fever’ by Alithnayn Abdulkareem – Nigeria
13. ‘Unblooming’ by Alexis Teyie – Kenya
14. ‘Transubstantiation’ by Genna Gardini – South Africa
15. ‘Taba’ by Adelola Ojutiku – Nigeria
16. ‘Bloated’ by Hanna Ali – Somalia
17. ‘The Geography of Sunflowers’ by Michelle Angwenyi – Kenya
18. ‘The House on the Corner’ by Lester Walbrugh – South Africa
19. ‘Blue in Green’ by Chourouq Nasri -Morocco
20. ‘Sew Your Mouth’ by Cherrie Kandie – Kenya
21. ‘South of Samora’ by Farai Mudzingwa – Zimbabwe
