The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction.

The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction exists to shine a much-needed light on nonfiction from Africa, in the form of personal narratives written by Nigerian women, in close proximity to the country and its myriads of joys and sorrows. Named after my maternal grandmother Alhaja Abebi Monsurat Lasaki, this award exists to celebrate bold women writers who are unshackled by cultures of silence and shame, belting the chorus of their voices for all to hear. On the literary landscape on the continent at present, there are many opportunities for fiction and poetry writers, but it appears non-fiction as a genre does not enjoy that spotlight and development. As a Nigerian woman writing creative non-fiction primarily, I have come into an intimate knowledge of our real life stories and the power they have to become a mirror, to see ourselves and to pursue freedom. In October of 2021, I was diagnosed with endometriosis and in a time of severe confusion and loneliness, I scoured the internet for an essay written by someone who looked like me, fighting the same battle. It felt like a warm, redemptive embrace when I found Adaeze M. Nwadike’s If A Bird Wishes to Fly (published on Lolwe), witnessing the real story of another young Nigerian woman battling this same disease. I drew strength from her and went on to pen essays that have served as witness and balm to other women. This is what is at the heart of The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction. I want to see African women undressing every shameful thing we have been told to bury. Brandishing our truth on the page, telling this world that it does not have the power to keep our mouths shut. There is a quote by Audre Lorde that I keep close to my heart: your silence will not save you. I start my essay Skinwork, with these words, and I leave you with them as a representation of the heart of this endeavor: We are the rain-blessed earth from which flowers of truth bloom. We are the ones who speak ourselves into glorious sight. Listen to us.

The 2023 Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction will be judged by Ajoke Bodunde and Ope Adedeji and Mofiyinfoluwa O.

The 2023 Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction is generously sponsored by Jadesola Osiberu (CEO of GREOH STUDIOS)

Submission Guidelines

• The award is open to Nigerian women, 18 and above who were born in, grew up in, or have significant lived experience within and proximity to the country. We encourage entries from queer women.
• The award is open to writers who have not published a complete body of work, and will not have done so by December 2023.
• All entries should be submitted to abebiaward@gmail.com, attached in doc. form. The attached entries should not bear any identifying information in the attached document as all submissions will be considered anonymously. The body of the email submission however should please include the writer’s full name, city of residence in Nigeria, and a brief bio.
• All entries should be nonfiction: i.e. real life stories derived from true events from the writer’s life. We would love to read essays that delve deep into emotional interiorities, family relations, gendered expectations, patriarchal conditioning and triumph. This does not mean essays must be sad, or political but that they depict the complexities of what it is to move as a woman in this country.
• All entries should be within the range of 1,500–3,000 words in length
• Submissions will open from the 1st of October 2023 and close on the 14th of November 2023 at 6pm WAT.
• A winner will be announced on the 1st of December, along with a runner up and three notable entries.
• The winner will be awarded N150,000 and the first runner up will be awarded N100,000.
• The winner, runner up and three notable entries will be invited to a two-day writer’s residency in Lagos, in December followed by a reading event to celebrate the first year of the award. Further details will be released closer to the aforementioned time.

Meet the judges:

• Àjọkẹ́ Bọ́dúndé is a Nigerian writer and editor. Her work draws from the well of Yoruba tradition, rooted in vibrant celebration of womanhood as whole and powerful. In 2017, her poem ‘Girl’ was published in AKÉ REVIEW. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Merky New Writers’ Prize, founded by Black British artist Stormzy and Penguin Random House. She is a part of the inaugural BORN::FREE writer’s collective in London, UK. In recent times, she has begun working on her debut collection of poems, as well as long form narrative threading through familial experiences to give prose to the realities of young women navigating personhood and notions of freedom in cultures where autonomy is taboo.
• Ope Adedeji is an editor and writer with almost a decade of experience in media, tech and publishing. She is currently the Editorial Director at Big Cabal Media, where she’s in charge of designing the vision, strategy and agenda of the organisation’s three publications: Zikoko, TechCabal and Citizen. She has recently completed her Miles Morland Scholarship, which she was awarded for her novel, the Making of Gods. In 2021, she completed an MA at the University of East Anglia, where she was a Booker Prize Scholar. She has won several literary awards for her writing, and maintains a Substack on the art and science of writing and editing at https://ope.substack.com/. You’ll find her work in McSweeney’s Quarterly, Inque Magazine and The Republic.
• Mofiyinfoluwa O. is a writer from Lagos, Nigeria whose work delves into emotional interiorities, womanhood as an embodied experience and the redemptive force of memory. Her work has appeared in Guernica, The Black Warrior Review, Lolwe and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2022 Magdalena Award as well as the 2022 Iowa Arts Fellowship: both for demonstrable excellence in craft. She is a second year candidate on the Non-Fiction MFA at Iowa where she is at work on her debut collection of essays.