2023 African literature festival holds in Oxford, September

To give more African writers opportunity to enter for the yearly James Currey Prize for African Literature, organisers have extended the deadline for the 2023 from to June 12, 2023. Entries would have closed on April 1, 2023.

The 2023 edition of the African Literature Festival, organised by the James Currey Society, will hold in Oxford, United Kingdom, on Friday, September 1, and runs through Sunday, September 3, 2023.

The Prize, worth £1000, is awarded yearly for the best unpublished full-length work of prose fiction written in English for a novel written in English. The winner will be selected from a long list of 10 titles, followed by a shortlist of three outstanding manuscripts submitted for the prize.

It will be awarded to the overall winner by a panel of judges appointed each year by the World Arts Agency. Henry Akubuiro, Nigerian journalist, novelist, playwright and children’s literature author, heads this year’s jury.

Other members of the jury include, Masende Ntshaga (South Africa), Debbie Edwards (UK/Saint Lucia), Tatthiana Cassiano (Brazil), Kakwenza Rukirabasiaja (Uganda), Javier Lozano and Nneoma Otuegbe (UK/Nigeria).

A writer born in Africa, who is a national or resident of an African country or whose parents are African, is eligible to participate. Only previously unpublished prose fiction submissions in English will be considered for the prize. Abibiman Publishing UK will publish the winning manuscript. Entries should be mailed to: submission@jamescurreyprize.com.

The winner of the prize will also be invited to the festival. The Chair of the Jury, Akubuiro, has encouraged African writers to enter for the prize: “The James Currey Prize for African Literature is one of the respected pan African literary prizes awarded in the UK, named in honour of the legendary Prof. James Currey, who pioneered the Heinemann African Writers Series.

“A brain child of Onyeka Nwelue, the prize is awarded on merit, and among its major attractions are a publishing contract awarded by Abibiman for the winning entry and an automatic invitation for the author to attend the glamorous African Literature Festival in Oxford later in the year. Some entries have come in already. We are expecting more before the June 12 deadline.”