In 2019, ROSL will be continuing its longstanding support of the Caine Prize for African Writing, by hosting the shortlisted writers in London, holding an evening of words and music alongside ROSL musicians, and for the second year running; presenting the ROSL Readers' Award to one of the writers.
Launched in 2018, this award asks ROSL members to read each of the short stories listed for the main Caine Prize and vote for their favourite. The winner of this award receives £1,000 and is then commissioned to write an original short story, which appears in a future edition of the Overseas journal.
Last year, it was Malaysia-based Nigerian writer Wole Talabi who took home the award. His short story, Debut, which explored the future of art and artificial intelligence, appeared in the March-May 2019 edition of Overseas. You can read his work here.
The response from members was fantastic, and we hope as many people as possible will get involved this year as well. A new crop of writers have already been shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize, their works can be read below:
Lesley Nneka Arimah, Skinned
Meron Hadero, The Wall
Cherrie Kandie, Sew My Mouth
Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti, It Takes A Village Some Say
Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor, All Our Lives
Click here to cast your Vote for the ROSL Readers' Award 2019
You have until 3 July to vote, so get reading! If you would prefer a hard copy of the stories, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
