Afritondo short story prize 2012 SHORTLIST
We are excited to announce the shortlist for the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2021. These five stories have been selected from a longlist of sixteen stories by Edwige Dro, Maneo Mohale, and Kiprop Kimutai after three weeks of intense deliberations.
The Prayer, The Hope, And The Anthem (or, The Fall So Far)
Rémy Ngamije - Namibia
Set one week before his 30th birthday, The Prayer, The Hope, And The Anthem (or, The Fall So Far) humorously traces the millennial fears, amusing mishaps, crushing disappointments, and minor triumphs of an aspiring writer living in Namibia's capital city, Windhoek. Wrapped up in the certainty of his own successful destiny, but having failed to live up to his familial expectations, the writer has arrived on the cusp of a milestone age with a fine mixture of jadedness and ennui. This comedic short story explores life in diaspora, the complexities of modern love, and the breadth and depth of grief and loss.
Rémy is a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer. He is the founder, chairperson, and artministrator of Doek, an independent arts organisation in Namibia supporting the literary arts. He is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia’s first and only literary magazine. His work has appeared in Lolwe, The Johannesburg Review of Books, AFREADA, Brainwavez, American Chordata, Azure, Sultan's Seal, New Contrast, and many other publications. His debut novel "The Eternal Audience Of One" is forthcoming from Scout Press (S&S). He was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2020. He was also longlisted for the 2020 and 2021 Afritondo Short Story Prizes. In 2019 he was shortlisted for Best Original Fiction by Stack Magazines. More of his writing can be read on his website: remythequill.com
Gracious
Faraaz Mahomed - South Africa
Gracious tells the story of Salim, a 'coloured' law professor in South Africa who learns that he is the biological son of an apartheid parliamentarian. It examines the different life trajectories of his white and non-white families and considers the complexities of his own place somewhere in-between.
Faraaz is a clinical psychologist and human rights researcher, from South Africa, based in New York. He has written several short stories and travel pieces, with publications in Granta, the Sunday Times and others. In 2016, he won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the African region, and in 2020, he was a finalist for the inaugural Toyin Falola Prize. He is currently working on a novel.
Human Cities
Justin Clement (Nigeria)
Set in an alternate earth where some of humanity have achieved immortality, with unforeseen effects, Human Cities is an intricate speculative story that follows a woman moving through the world and trying to hold on to the remnants of herself, for as long as she is able to.
Justin is just one of those people. He cares about food, humans, and good artful mischief. He's an alumnus of Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus Trust Creative Writing Workshop, and he's been listed for various prizes and awards, including the African Writers Award, the Awele Creative Trust Award, and the Punocracy Prize for Satire. He is the recipient of the 2020 Gulliver Travel Grant by the Speculative Literature Foundation. He has been published in a few places online and in the print anthology, Water Birds on the Lakeshore. He currently writes for the digital comics company, Comic Republic, and is studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt. Some people think he's tall, although they just might be hallucinating.
Ethio-Cubano
Desta Haile - UK/Eritrea
Ethio-Cubano is a dreamlike patchwork of memories, experiences and historical instances where Ethiopian and Cuban cultures collide.
Desta is a British-Eritrean singer, writer, and educator. She is the founder and creative director of Languages through Music, an innovative online language school, and co-founder of Sisters Only Language Summit. In 2020, she won To Speak Europe in Different Languages, a hybrid and collective writing competition run by Specimen, Babel Review of Translations, and Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (In Exile). Desta hopes to publish her first book soon.
Collector of Memories
Joshua Chizoma - Nigeria
Collector of Memories examines the idea of motherhood, sisterhood and belonging. It questions how much we actually do know of ourselves and our histories, and why a contrived history is not just as valid as the real thing. Four women bound together by a secret decades old attempt to rectify the past by making peace with the present. In Collector of Memories, the reader gets to wonder how we’d fare if our lives, as we know them, get upturned.
Joshua is a Nigerian writer. His works have been published or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, AFREADA, Entropy Magazine, Anathema Magazine, Agbowo Magazine, Prachya Review and elsewhere. His story, ‘A House Called Joy,’ won the 2018 Kreative Diadem Prize in the flash fiction category. He is an alumnus of the 2019 Purple Hibiscus Creative Writing Workshop taught by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
On Friday, March 26, there will be an online event to announce the winner of this year’s prize. More details on that will be shared soon.
The winner will receive a cash prize of $1000. The four other shortlisted writers will get $100 each.
Our sincere gratitude to everyone who sent in an entry. It was a difficult and enjoyable work reading and considering every submission.
Finally, our warm congratulations to all the shortlisted writers! We wish them the best of luck.