The shortlist for the 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction has been revealed.

This year’s prize theme is ‘ID’, the abbreviation for ‘identity’ as well as the psychoanalytic construct of the ‘Id’, and prize adjudicators sought ‘innovative short fiction exploring identity, especially (but not limited to) the themes of gender identity and sexuality’.

The 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize shortlist

(in alphabetical order)

1. ‘The Piano Player’ by Agazit Abate (Ethiopia)
2. ‘Ibinabo’ by Michael Agugom (Nigeria)
3. ‘The Geography of Sunflowers’ by Michelle Angwenyi (Kenya)
4. ‘Limbo by Innocent’ Chizaram Ilo (Nigeria)
5. ‘Sew My Mouth’ by Cherrie Kandie (Kenya)
6. ‘South of Samora’ by Farai Mudzingwa (Zimbabwe)
7. ‘All Our Lives’ by Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor (Nigeria)
8. ‘The House on the Corner’ by Lester Walbrugh (South Africa)
9. ‘God Skin’ by Michael Yee (South Africa)

The winners will be announced on 21 June 2018, the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. This year’s SSDA anthology, ID: New Short Fiction From Africa, composed of the longlisted entries, will be launched on the same day.

• See The Johannesburg Review of Books for more!

Author images: SSDA/Composite: The JRB

Categories Africa Fiction International

Tags Awards News Short Stories Short Story Day Africa Prize