The Island Prize For a Debut Novel From Africa is currently open.

The Island Prize for fiction has commenced accepting entries for 2024. The prize initiative is in its third year and it seeks to recognize and provide support for emerging literary talents from Africa. It invites submissions of unpublished debut literary manuscripts from authors across the African continent.

Eligibility for The Island Prize 2024

The Island Prize is open to African writers aged 18 and over regardless of place of residence.

For the purposes of the competition, we define “African writers” as writers born in or having citizenship of any African country.

1. 1. You must not be represented by a literary agent or currently under contract with a publisher. If you receive an offer of representation while your novel is under consideration, you must inform them and withdraw.
   2. Non-fiction, poetry and short story collections, as well as fiction for children are NOT eligible.
   3.  There is no restriction as to specific genre – anything from literary fiction to crime thriller is welcome.
   4. The complete novel should be between 35,000 words and 100,000 words. Please make sure to work within those parameters.
   5. Entrants must not have previously published a novel; this includes self-published or eBook-only editions. To clarify: authors may have previously published poetry collections, short story collections and non-fiction.
   6. Authors with manuscripts that they would like to see in full will be contacted by 1 February 2024 – though this date might have to be extended slightly, depending on the volume of entries received.
   7. Authors MUST have a full manuscript to submit within 3 days of this date, otherwise they will be disqualified and removed from the longlist.
   8. The winner will be announced in the first week of June 2024.

 

Submission Guidelines

To enter:

1.  Send the following through the form on their website:

a. The first three chapters or 10,000 words of the novel;

b. A covering statement giving EACH of the following (please make sure you have included them all):

1.   the word count,
2. name,
3. address,
4. nationality
5. preferred pronouns of the author,
6. the title,
7.  a brief, two-sentence description of the main subjects and themes of the novel;

c. A one-page synopsis setting out the basic story.

2. Format:

a. Entries should be in a simple font, size 12 – Times New Roman, Garamond, Arial, Calibri are all fine.
b. Please ensure entries are double or 1.5 spaced.
c. All entries should be in Word doc or docx.

Please note that the literary quality of 1b and 1c is not taken into account in judging, so
please keep them clear and informative.

Submissions should be made to contact@hhousebooks.com .

Prize

• From the submitted entries, no more than TEN and no fewer than FIVE authors will be invited to submit their full manuscript. These authors will be provided with optional feedback.
• From this shortlist the winning three entries will be chosen, with prize money of £500 for first, and £200 for each runner-up.
• The winning three manuscripts will all be considered for publication and be read by an agent.

Deadline:

January 31st, 2024

Goodluck on this! If you wish to apply to other contest or job opportunities, check this creative writing submissions guide out!