Booker-longlisted author Karen Jennings and Holland House announce the Island Prize 2023-2024 for unpublished African authors.
Holland House Books and Booker-longlisted author Karen Jennings are delighted to announce the third Island Prize to promote new African authors. The aim is to increase the representation of African voices in fiction, offering a £500 first prize, making sure that all shortlisted manuscripts are read by an agent/s, and the possibility of a publishing contract with Holland House Books.
In its first two years, the prize received over 250 submissions from across the continent, with authors from South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, and Algeria being shortlisted.
Karen Jennings says: “As African writers, we are often faced with a double dose of challenges. Firstly, getting published within African countries can be incredibly difficult because local publishers are often constrained by finances. Secondly, for many writers getting published overseas is almost impossible because the rest of the world has certain ideas of what an African story should be. Having experienced these challenges first-hand – being told that a novel is ‘too African’ or ‘not African enough’ – I know how important it is that stories from Africa be given a wide variety of platforms so that they can be shared at home and abroad without the need to fit certain moulds. I am proud to be part of The Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa. This is one step towards bridging the gap between here and there, us and them. In fact, it is through prizes like these that authors across the continent can gain the confidence to tell stories as they wish. The hope is that, with time, such stories will become appreciated across the globe, without first being labelled as an exception or a surprise.”
For further information about the prize and how to submit, please go to:
https://www.hhousebooks.com/the-island-prize-2023-2024/
Or email Robert Peett at: contact@hhousebooks.com
- Download the call for submissions for 2023-2024 here
- Download the rules and eligibility criteria for 2023-2024 here