The Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature has announced the shortlist for the 2024 edition.
The shortlisted writers are: Haliru Ali Musa (Nigeria) for “The Pregnant Ghost”, Ekenedirichukwu Anselm Alita (Nigeria) for “Mortuary”, Kagira George (Kenya) for “Beauty’s in a Mark”, Kaluwe Haangala (Zambia) for “Call of the Sandy Tombs” and J.E.Sibi-Okumu (Kenya) for “Mama Tekla’s Sunset.”
Themed on “Peace”, the short-story contest received a total of 72 entries from Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Kingdom of Eswatini, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Poland, Malawi, The Gambia, Sri Lanka, USA, Botswana and Tanzania.
The jurors include Dr. Paula O. M. Otukile (Botswana), Camilla Bauer (Sweden), Henry Akubuiro (Nigeria), Rupasinghe D. Pramudith (Sri Lanka), and Alexander Nderitu (Kenya).
The shortlisted authors also have the option of having their stories published in Sri Lanka and receiving agent representation in Asia for at least one year.
The winner, who will be unveiled in early 2025, will walk away with a cash prize of Ksh 100,000 (USD 770 at current exchange rates.)
The Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature is named after its founder, Kenyan writer/critic Alexander Nderitu.
In 2017, Business Daily newspaper named him one of Kenya’s ‘Top 40 Under 40 Men’. He is the recipient of a Share Africa Climate Fiction Award, a Sahitto Literature Jury Award, and a SEVHAGE-Agema Founders’ Prize for African Criticism.
Haliru Ali Musa is a writer who believes, almost stubbornly, in the power of stories to unsettle the mind.
He gravitates towards themes of unrequited love, betrayal, and grief. His work often blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction.
Ekenedirichukwu Alita is a graduate of Philosophy who simply loves reading stories more than he enjoys writing them.
His work Izuchukwu made the shortlist of the Random Photo Journal Prize 2024. Equally, his work Blank Spaces appeared in Issue 12 of Libretto magazine, 2024.
George Kagira is an avid reader who has been writing regularly – from poetry to short stories to full length books.
Notably, he penned the St. Maryan Seven Series, a series of Class readers for ages 13 to 18, and more recently, the Jimmy Karda Series, a series of humorous novellas for ages 9 to 12, mostly intended to encourage reading.
He authored his first full-length novel, Sword Silence and The Naivasha Apocalypse, in 2018. His major themes are family, betrayal and the nature of human relationships.
Kaluwe Haangala is a published author of poetry, song lyrics and short stories. His work has been published by Kalahari Review, Writers Space Africa, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Poetree (Canada), the African Global Networks (UK), and upcoming publication by Ubwali Magazine (Zambia), among others.
Notable is his top five placement in the 2022 Climate Fiction Award by the Botswana Society for Human Development and inclusion in the Spoiling the Broth Anthology: Volume 3 by Publish’d Afrika Magazine (South Africa).
J.E. Sibi-Okumu was born near the shores of Lake Victoria, in Western Kenya. As fate would have it, he found himself yanked from a rural African village to be transplanted to the streets of London as a seven-year-old.
He is the author of Collected Plays 2004-2014 (Jahazi Press) and Tom Mboya – Master of Mass Management (Longhorn Publishers).
Some of his poems have appeared in various journals and he edited the poetry anthology To Be a Man.
His short story, “Belonging”, appeared in Nairobi Noir (Akashic Publishers) and was subsequently mentioned in an Honour Roll within The Best Mystery Stories of The Year 2021 (edited by Otto Penzler) in the USA.
