Quramo Writer’s Prize 2024

The annual Quramo Writers’ Prize is here again!

Get Your Manuscripts Into Shape. It’s that time of the year again! Yet another opportunity to make your literary and publishing dreams come true.

Quramo Publishing Ltd. (QPL) is officially accepting entries for the 8th edition of its annual Quramo Writers’ Prize (QWP) from Friday, 1 March 2024.

Entries are invited from: Friday 1 March to Friday 31 May, 2024

2024 Judges: TBD

Prize: Cash Prize and a Publishing Deal

Shortlist prize: Manuscript Feedback, Publishing Deal Consideration, Creative Writing Workshop and miscellaneous prizes

Longlist prize: Creative Writing Masterclass and miscellaneous prizes.

Submissions: Complete manuscript plus one-page synopsis of full-length novels for adults or young adults

Entry fee: Free

Eligibility: Open worldwide to unpublished Nigerian and African writers. Self-published, independently published or Electronically published are also not eligible.

For QWP 2024, we are inviting unpublished Nigerian and African writers to submit a fiction prose manuscript. An “African writer” is taken to mean someone who is a national of an African country, with a 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 Each entry must be an original, unpublished work.

Submissions open on the 1st of March, 2024, and close on the 31st of May, 2024. All submissions should be made through the form below and must follow all the submission guidelines explicitly stated on the site, as failure to do so may lead to immediate disqualification.

The winner of the Quramo Writers’ Prize will receive a monetary prize and publishing deal.

Created in 2017 as an avenue for fresh writers to showcase their manuscripts to the global literary community and contribute their works to the canonization of African literature, the Quramo Writers’ Prize celebrates unpublished writers who are working every day to hone their craft and record our continent’s original stories.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.

Now in its eighth year, the prize, which was first won by Samuel Monye (Give Us Each Day), has gone on to produce amazing writers with equally brilliant debut novels across the continent. Monye’s Give Us Each Day was longlisted for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature 2021. Last year, Chiziterem Chijioke was announced as the winner, with his manuscript Dear Zimi, which is currently under development to be published and released in early fall 2024.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All entries outside the following requirements are liable for disqualification:

• The Quramo Writers’ Prize is only open to unpublished Nigerian and African writers living within and outside the continent.
• The fiction prose manuscript must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant. Published work is not eligible for the prize.
• Short story collections, plays, and poetry are not eligible.
• Manuscripts must contain a minimum of 30,000 words.
• All entrants must be 16 years of age and above.
• All entries must be submitted through the submissions portal on the official Quramo website in the following format:

1. Times New Roman font type
2. MS Word format
3. Font Size 12
4. Left justified
5. Double line spacing
6. Page numbers on each page

• All submissions must be sent in with the following information:

1. A one-page synopsis (click link for some guidance on how to write a winning synopsis)
2. A short personal biography of 100 words max. (in third person POV)
3. Social media profiles (Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn)
4. Full (legal) name
5. Physical address
6. Email address
7. Phone number

• Manuscripts submitted to the QWP Portal must not have been entered into any other competitions running concurrently. Prior entries for the QWP are also ineligible.
• Identifying information (name, address, etc.) should not be included on the pages of the manuscript.
• Entries that do not comply with the competition rules will be disqualified.
• All longlisted entrants must be available to participate in a publicity campaign from the date of announcement of the longlist leading up to the unveiling of the winner of the prize.
• The winner of the competition shall be eligible to receive a monetary award and a publishing deal.
• Quramo Publishing shall have a right of first refusal for the second book by the winner. This means that Quramo Publishing alone reserves the right to publish the second title by the same author, herein known as the QWP winner.

• The winner undertakes to participate and work with editors at Quramo Publishing on the execution of the publication.
• The winner undertakes to commit fully to the promotion and publication of the book upon publication.
• Quramo reserves the right to refuse to award the prize should it come to a decision that none of the manuscripts submitted is worthy of winning the prize.
• Quramo reserves the right to refuse to publish the winner’s manuscript if they do not agree to the terms and conditions of OUR publishing contract.