Élékéré Press Announces Inaugural Prize For Fiction

Élékéré Press, a new independent boutique publisher, has launched the inaugural Élékéré Prize for Fiction, an award recognising outstanding short fiction by Black writers. The $500 prize for its inaugural edition is inviting writers across Africa and the diaspora to reflect on the theme “Inheritance,” inviting writers to explore things passed down. The Élékéré Prize is the press’s commitment to Black writers around the world who are still shaping their stories — particularly stories that live at the margins. 

Élékéré is the Igbo word for the hour hand of the clock. The publishing press is built on a single, uncompromising belief: the hour hand does not need permission to strike, and neither do the stories the world keeps asking to wait. They publish voices that feel alive, tender, disruptive, and imaginative stories rooted in lived experience, arriving not when the industry thinks it should, but when the hour demands.

For its inaugural edition, Élékéré Press is looking for voices that have not yet had the attention, care, or visibility they deserve, and intends the prize as a first step toward giving them that. After working across publishing, activism, and social justice for over a decade, there’s a realization that numerous voices and perspectives never get the chance to be heard. There is still the illogical belief that there is a certain way to be a writer and a certain way to be a Black and African writer. “The Élékéré Prize is the first step in our pledge to support work that fits no mold, innovative, and authentic,” Justin Dozie, co-founder of Élékéré Press expressed. 

The Élékéré Prize is designed as a springboard for fresh and authentic voices from the African continent and diaspora to recenter indigenous narratives, uplift marginalised perspectives, and reframe what it means to tell an authentic story of Black and African life. “Élékéré is the Igbo word for clock. We chose it because time is the thing our writers have been denied, told again and again that the moment isn’t right, that the market isn’t ready. A clock doesn’t ask permission to strike the hour. Neither do we,” said Nnaemeka Nnam, co-founder of Élékéré Press. 

The inaugural prize will be judged by acclaimed Nigerian writer, Arinze Ifeakandu, author of God’s Children Are Little Broken Things. Ifeakandu is a winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the Lambda Literary Award, and a recipient of the Story Prize Spotlight Award and an O. Henry Prize. “I was delighted to be invited to judge this inaugural prize, firstly because I love short stories, but also because African and black writing has never been so exciting. I so much look forward to the stories that will come my way,” Arinze Ifeakandu said. Eligible submissions must be original, unpublished works of fiction written in English and must not exceed 3,500 words. Work created or substantially edited using artificial intelligence is not eligible. Full eligibility requirements and submission guidelines are available on the Élékéré Press website. The submission deadline is 31 August 2026, 11:59 pm WAT and writers are encouraged to send submissions and questions to submissions@elekere.press.