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The 2024 Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction

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 essays. 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 here.
  • Submissions will open from the 1st of October 2024 at 9am WAT and close on the 1st of November 2024 at 6pm WAT.
  • A winner will be announced in the second week of December, 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.
  • If you have any questions, kindly reach out to us via email at abebiaward@gmail.com

 

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Enquiries about submissions should be directed to The Abebi Afrononfiction Institute. Please always refer to their website for complete details and information. 

Please note, this call is run by The Abebi Afrononfiction Institute, not the Commonwealth Foundation.