2026 Caine Prize for African Writing

The 2026 Caine Prize for African Writing is currently open for submission. The writing contest is open to African writers.

2026 Caine Prize Submissions

The 2026 Caine Prize for African Writing is currently open for submission. The writing contest is open to African writers, that is, "someone who is a national of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality."

Also Read: The 2026 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize

Submission Guidelines for the 2026 Caine Prize for African Writing

• The story must have been published in the five years preceding the submissions deadline. For 2026 eligibility, the judge will only consider work published between 27th February 2021 and 27th February 2026.
• Entries must be between 3,000 and 10,000 words in length.
• Entries must be submitted by a publisher. This includes publishers of physical and digital books, literary journals, magazines, and arts-oriented websites. Kindly note that the publisher submitting the entry cannot also be the author of the story.
• Writers must be at least 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• Self-published and unpublished short stories are not eligible.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.
• When submitting digitally published short stories, kindly provide a PDF version. Alternatively, you may instead provide a PDF containing a link to the publication.

If submitting multiple stories for consideration, please send your entries via email to submissions@caineprize.com, including an Application Letter that contains all the information requested in the submission form for each story. 

Please note that all submissions must comply with the rules of entry and include the required information outlined in the submission form to be accepted.

Submissions that do not meet the above criteria will not be eligible for the Prize. If you have any questions or queries regarding our eligibility criteria, please email: submissions@caineprize.com 

By submitting a story, publishers and writers agree to the conditions outlined above in the criteria, as well as those in the Frequently Asked Questions section and Google Form. Shortlisted candidates will receive separate Terms and Conditions.

The official information page.