The K & L Prize 2020 Longlist

The longlist for the 2020 K & L Prize has been released. The K & L Prize, which is sponsored by Myles Ojabo and is worth $1000 in cash prize, this year called for submissions on the theme of Afrofuturism from writers between the ages of 18 and 25. The longlist of ten writers, which includes writers from Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria, was selected by Arthur Chigbo Anyaduba and Dione Joseph. The South African writer, Sisca Julius, won the prize last year for her story, “Honey Bee”.

On the longlist this year, Anyaduba, who is an assistant professor at the University of Winnipeg, wrote: “The stories  are a piece of imaginative wonder: remarkable depth of imagination, mellifluous narrative, the stories stay with you long after you move on with your life.” And these stories draw from the “pool of African myths and legends, and popular Western sci-fi. There’s the post-apocalyptic thing, alien invasion, robots, technology, witches and wizards, advanced weaponry, new/alien speciesism, among similar trends.”

Here is the longlist for the K & L Prize 2020:

• Shanice Ndlovu, A Water Heart 
• Olamide Olanrewaju, Blueland 
• Audrey Obuobisa-Darko, Araba
• Kanyinsola Olorunnisola, Abija, the Architect of Mayhem
• Augusta Oleforo, Big Fish
• Chinwe Marycynthia Okafor, The Chronicle of Anaoma
• Abdularahim Hussani, The Coloured Country
• Glennise Ayuk, Curse’ Redemption
• Izuchukwu Udokwu, The New Colours
• Yvonne Nezianya, The Wonders of Spirits

The longlisted works will be published in an anthology titled Black Skin, No Mask. The shortlist will be announced in June 2020; in July 2020, the winner will be announced.

We are rooting for each and every one of these writers. xx.