The African Speculative Fiction Society is seeking for nominations for Nommo Awards 2018. This will be the second edition of the awards.
The African Speculative Fiction Society emerged in August 2017 as a community of writers, editors, publishers and artists of African Science Fiction and Fantasy. That community’s first action was to announce a new awards for the African literary space they called the Nommo Awards. Taking its name the Nommo, from Dogon cosmology, “twins who on land can take the form of fish walking on their tails” the awards would celebrate works of speculative fiction by Africans, defined as “science fiction, fantasy, stories of magic and traditional belief, alternative histories, horror and strange stuff that might not fit in anywhere else.”
The shortlists were announced later in the year with writers in the running in the categories of
- The Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African ($1,000)
- The Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novella by an African ($500)
- The Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Short Story by an African ($500)
- The Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Graphic Novel by Africans ($1,000 to be shared)
The awards were handed out at the Ake Festival 2017 with Tade Thompson winning Best Novel for Rosewater, Nnedi Okorafor winning Best Novella for Binti , Tendai Huchu and Lesley Nneka Arimah tying for Best Short Story, and Best Graphic Novel going for Avonome by Xavier Ighorodje & Stanley Obende The Corpse Exhibition by Chronic no. 3 Various writers and artists ed. Ntone Edjabe.
The next edition of the awards are upon us as the team at African Speculative Fiction Society seek out those who will be in the running for the new honours. The stories being sought out were published between January 1, 2017 – December 31 2017. Any work of speculative fiction (Novel, Novella, Short Story or Graphic Novel) by an African, published anywhere in the world is eligible for nomination. The categories available are;
- Stories of 40,000 words or longer
- Novella: Stories of between 17,500 and 40,000 words
- Short Story: Stories of between 1 and 17,500 words
- Graphic Novel: Stories that consist of both images and words of any length.
If you think that your work falls in any of these categories then I suggest that you go to the African Speculative Fiction Society website for more information.
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