It is with great delight that we announce The 2024 Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction. Following our successful debut last year, we remain assured that the work of TAANI and this Award is much needed and urgent on the literary landscape of the Continent. We received almost ninety applications last year, and we look forward to reading even more exciting and riveting pieces of work from Nigerian women in this year’s edition.
We’re still looking for powerful stories drawn from the personal lives of powerful women who embrace the genre of creative nonfiction and the revolutionary power of personal narrative to undo the harm of silence.
Baby writers, apply. Toddler writers apply. Adult writers apply. Wherever you are in your writing journey, I invite you to submit, to share your stories with us and with the world.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- The award is open to Nigerian women, 18 and above who were born in, grew up in, or have significant lived experience within and proximity to the country. We encourage entries from queer women.
- The award is open to writers who have not published a complete body of work (such as a memoir or a novel through a publishing house), and will not have done so by December 2024.
- All entries should be creative nonfiction: i.e. real life stories derived from true events from the writer’s life. We are not looking for academic, scholarly or purely journalistic pieces of work. We believe in the revolutionary power of personal narrative and so we would love to read essays that delve deep into emotional interiorities, family relations, gendered expectations, patriarchal conditioning and triumph. This does not mean essays must be sad, or political but that they depict the complexities of what it is to move as a woman in this country/continent. You can see last year’s winning entries for model examples of the kind of work we’re looking for
- All entries should be within the range of 1,500–3,000 words in length
- Submissions should be made through the link found below.
- Submissions will open from the 1st of October 2024 at 9am WAT and close on the 1st of November 2024 at 6pm WAT.
NOTE TO APPLICANTS
- A winner will be announced in the second week of December 2024, along with a runner up and three notable entries.
- The winner will be awarded N200,000 and the first runner up will be awarded N120,000. Each notable entry will receive N50,000.
- The winner, runner up and three notable entries will be invited to a two-day all expense paid writer’s residency in Lagos, in December. The residency will close with an award ceremony followed by a reading event to celebrate the winning writers. Further details will be released closer to the aforementioned time.
Deadline – 31st October, 2024
Apply here.
Fore more information, visit The 2024 Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction
