The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! 2018 longlist was announced on October 25, 2018.
The Short Story is Dead, Long Live The Short Story! is a competition set up by South African based Black Letter Media which involves a short story call out and prize followed by an anthology. Previous winners of this competition are Obinna Udenwe for his story Men Are Fools (2016) and Mary Ononokpono for her story Firewater (2017).
The first edition of the anthology, edited by Duduzile Zamantungwa Mabaso, featuring Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana), Chiaka Obasi (Nigeria), Tebogo Ndlovu (Zimbabwe), Emmanuel Ogukwe (Nigeria), Sitawa Namwalie (Kenya), and Obinna Udenwe (Nigeria) came out in 2012. The second edition featured Obinna Udenwe (first prize winner), Mapule Mohulatsi (joint second prize winner), and Christine Coates (joint second prize winner).
The longlist for the 2018 edition of the competition was announced and the people on the list are;
- Oma by Nebila Abdulmelik.
- Un/Beloved by Themesha Khan.
- The Joy of Meeting a Helper by Okechi Okeke.
- The Lightness of Lies by Christine Coates.
- Emperor Tiberuius and the Tokoloshe by Damon Yeld.
- Bloodofjesus by Olubunmi Familoni.
- Peregrination by Troy Onyango.
- Omo, omo, omo by Ope Adedeji.
- Pastor-malaya by Patrick Ochieng.
- Absaloming by Tariro Ndoro.
- The Elizabethans We Lost by Carey Baraka.
The judges for this year’s competition are Malebo Sephodi (author of Miss Behave), Tendai Mwanaka (owner of Mwanaka Media and Publishing), and Lungile Zakwe (founder of AFRO-Freedom Book Club). They will be announcing the shortlist in November 2018 followed by the winners at the launch of The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! Vol. 4.
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