Created in 2017 as an avenue for fresh writers to showcase their manuscripts to the global literary community and contribute their works to the canonisation of African literature, the Quramo Writers’ Prize celebrates unpublished writers who work every day to hone their craft and record our continent’s original stories. The prize aims to encourage and stimulate a new community of talented writers, providing an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition and encouragement.
For QWP 2026, unpublished Nigerian and other African writers are invited to submit a fiction prose manuscript. An ‘African writer’ is taken to mean someone who is a national of an African country, with at least one parent who is African by birth or nationality. The Prize is awarded to a fiction prose manuscript by an African writer published in English, whether they reside in Africa or elsewhere. Each entry must be an original, unpublished work.
Prize: Cash Prize and a Publishing Deal
Shortlist prize: Manuscript Feedback, Publishing Deal Consideration, Creative Writing Workshop and miscellaneous prizes
Longlist prize: Creative Writing Masterclasses and miscellaneous prizes.
Submissions: Complete manuscript plus a one-page synopsis of a full-length novel for adults or young adults
Entry fee: Free
Eligibility: Open worldwide to unpublished Nigerian and other African writers. Self-published, independently published or electronically published authors of full-length novels or short story collections are not eligible.