The AKO Caine Prize Award 2026 for African Writing (£10,000 Cash Prize) Deadline: 27 February, 2026
Applications are now open for the 2026 AKO Caine Prize Award. It is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc, who was Chairman of the ‘Africa 95’ arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995 and for nearly 25 years Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. After his death, friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of £10,000 to be awarded annually in his memory.
Eligibility Requirements
- The story must have been published in the five years preceding the submissions deadline. For 2026 eligibility, the judges 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 over 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- Self-published and unpublished short stories are not eligible.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.
Application Deadline: 27 February 2026 (12:00 GMT).
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