Submit Applications: The Caine Prize for African Writing

Shortlisting and Expectations

• The winner and shortlisted writers will be invited to participate in events in Africa, London and elsewhere should resources and circumstances permit. In these cases, there will be travel award granted to each of the shortlisted candidates.
• By submitting an entry to the Prize, the publisher and author give a non-exclusive, non-commercial permission in perpetuity for the Prize to reproduce the story in the Caine Prize anthology in print, digital and audio formats should the story be shortlisted.
• By consenting to their stories being submitted for the Prize, the shortlisted writers agree to take part in Prize related events, including but not limited to in-person and online panel discussions, interviews, readings, podcast recordings and the final award ceremony.
• The Prize will provide a separate letter detailing terms of agreement to the shortlisted writers.

Eligibility Criteria

• The story must have been published in the five years preceding the submissions deadline. For 2024 eligibility, the judges will only consider work published between 1st April 2019 and 25th March 2024.
• Entries must be more than 3,000 words or less than 10,000 words.
• Entries must be submitted by a publisher. This includes publishers of physical and digital books, literary journals, magazines, and arts oriented websites.
• Writers must be over 18 years of age at the time of submission.
• Self-published and unpublished short stories are not eligible.
• Publishers are encouraged to submit multiple short stories as long as they do not submit more than one story by the same author.
• Stories may only be entered for consideration for The Caine Prize for African Writing once. Unfortunately, this means that you may not re-submit a story for consideration, even if it was not selected for the shortlist.
• Genres not eligible for entry include: novels, children’s stories, factual writing, academic essays, plays, poetry, autobiography/biography, and any work that does not constitute a fictional short story.
• Submissions must specify which African country the author comes from and the short story word count.
• Publishers are required to upload a ‘publisher’s letter’ with each submission. See below for more information:

What should the publisher’s letter include?

• Publishers are required to provide:
  • Name of the writer(s).
  • Title of the story or stories being submitted.
  • Word count of each submitted story.
  • The qualifying nationality of the writer(s).
  • The date of publication of the story or stories.
  • Confirmation of consent from the writer(s) whose stories are being submitted for the Prize.
• Each story must be submitted by the publisher as a PDF attachment or via a link to the story (if it has been published online).
• Please ensure ‘The Caine Prize for African Writing Entry for 2024’ appears in the subject matter of your email.

For more information, visit The Caine Prize.