Category: Awards
-
Recap 2025: Literary Awards, Residencies, and Fellowships
As part of our 2025 recap, we list Literary Awards, Residencies, and Fellowships in African and Black Literature over the year. It was another year of overachieving writers of African descent as they grabbed awards, fellowships, and residencies on the continent and in the diaspora. While it cannot be compared to the heights of 2021,…
-
International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2026 Longlist Announced
Here are the African writers on the longlist of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2026, announced on Monday, December 15, 2025. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction rewards excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing while encouraging the readership of high-quality Arabic literature through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other…
-
US National Book Critics Circle Awards 2025 Longlists Announced
The US National Book Critics Circle has announced its 2025 award longlists. The lists were revealed from December 15 to 19, 2025. Since 1974, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has honored the best books published in English in the United States across six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. Finalists are nominated…
-
UK’s Royal Society of Literature Announces 2025 International Writers
The UK’s Royal Society of Literature announced its latest group of International Writers on Saturday, December 13, 2025. The Royal Society of Literature was founded to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent” in the United Kingdom in 1820. One of its awards is its International Writers Award, which recognises the contribution of writers across…
-
Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025 Winners Announced.
Jeremy Tiboth, Filemon Iiyambo, Jedidja Kakuva, and Luigi Arnat won the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards 2025 in Windhoek on Tuesday, December 9, 2025. Established in 2021 by Doek, the biennial Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards celebrate contributors to Doek! Literary Magazine across the categories of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art. Previous winners of…
-
Najila Woodroffe wins Grenada Writers’ Prize 2025
Najila Woodroffe won the inaugural Grenada Writers’ Prize in St. George’s, Grenada, on Monday, December 8, 2025. The Grenada Writers’ Prize is a new national short story competition open to residents of Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. This initiative, supported by the Grenada Office of Creative Affairs and other sponsors, will award winners with cash…
-
Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2026 Longlists Announced
The longlists for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2026 were announced in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, starting on Thursday, November 27, 2025. Now in its landmark 20th edition, the award honours Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers, and young talent whose works and translations in the humanities have enriched Arab cultural, literary, and social life. One…
-
Sunday Times Literary Awards 2025 Winners Announced
Shubnum Khan and Khumisho Moguerane were declared winners of the Sunday Times Literary Awards 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday, December 4, 2025. The Sunday Times Literary Awards are awarded annually in fiction (since 1989) and nonfiction (since 2001). Organised by South African newspaper The Sunday Times, it has been won in recent times…
-
N.K. Jemisin Named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) named N.K. Jemisin the latest recipient of its Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award on Sunday, November 16, 2025. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, founded in 1965, is a non-profit organization that supports writers through advocacy, promotion, and resources, and hosts the annual Nebula Awards.…
-
Grenada Writers’ Prize 2025: Inaugural Shortlist Announced
The shortlist for the inaugural Grenada Writers’ Prize was announced in St. George’s, Grenada, on Monday, November 24, 2025. The Grenada Writers’ Prize is a new national short story competition open to residents of Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. This initiative, supported by the Grenada Office of Creative Affairs and other sponsors, will award winners…
-
Morland Writing Scholarships 2025 Winners Announced.
The four recipients of the Morland Writing Scholarships 2025 were announced in London, UK, on Saturday, November 22, 2025. The Morland Writing Scholarships for African Writers, popularly referred to as the Morland Writing Scholarship, provides financial support so writers can finish a manuscript. In the past, the scholarship has been accorded to writers from across…
-
US National Book Award 2025 Winners Announced
Omar El Akkad, Roxane Gay, and Patricia Smith won at the US National Book Awards 2025 in New York, USA, on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. The US National Book Awards are literary awards from the Northern American nation’s National Book Foundation, established in 1936. They are conferred on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young…
-
African Speculative Fiction Society Nommo Awards 2025 Winners Announced.
The African Speculative Fiction Society announced the winners of the 2025 Nommo Awards on Thursday, November 20, during the opening ceremony of the Aké Arts and Book Festival in Lagos, Nigeria. The African Speculative Fiction Society was founded to celebrate speculative fiction genres of magical realism, Sci-Fi, horror, and graphic novels in 2016. In the…
-
Dublin International Literary Award 2026 Nominations Announced
The nominees and jury for the Dublin International Literary Awards 2026 were unveiled in Dublin on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. The annual award, sponsored by Dublin City Council, celebrates excellence in world literature by honoring a novel written in or translated into English. The award, worth €100,000, has a unique nomination process that involves libraries…
-
Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté 2025: First Selection Announced
The first selection for Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté 2025 was announced on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, featuring authors Jesmyn Ward, Matthieu Niango, and Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin. The prize, which includes a €5,000 award, honors an author—French or foreign—whose work questions modern methods of fighting oppression or represents an act of resistance itself. It was…