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Deadline: 26 March 2012

2011 Submission Criteria for Burt Award for African Literature - Tanzania

OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION

• To support and motivate the development of supplementary reading materials for a critical stage of learning-the transition period between mother tongue and English medium instruction.
• To strengthen the English language skills of its reading audience and help foster improved skill levels and enthusiasm for reading.
• To stimulate and support the African publishing industry and African literature.
• To increase the stock of English readers in established school libraries and other libraries in Tanzania.
• To recognize excellence in young adult fiction from Africa.

• The story should be prose fiction containing content and language appropriate for upper primary school pupils, thus youth between 12-15 years old.
• The story should be written in English.
• The story should be prose fiction containing content and language appropriate for ages 12 – 15.
• The story should demonstrate a sound command of English, through clear, cohesive language and proper sentence structure, vocabulary and punctuation.
• The story should have a strong literacy merit including;
• Engaging characters with whom young readers can identify and protagonists who overcome challenges or obstacles in a positive way.
• A well-developed plot with a good flow of events.
• The story should inspire Tanzanian children and youth to read.
• The story should have an excellent storytelling style e.g. strong imagery, lively dialogue, and vivid description to arouse young readers’ interest and curiosity and keep them turning pages.
• The story should reflect current issues and challenges of concern to contemporary Tanzania.
• Manuscripts which have the potential to evolve into a book series or sequel will be welcome.

Publishers shall submit manuscripts on behalf of authors. A publisher is eligible to submit up to 3 manuscripts annually for the competition. Manuscripts will be prepared in collaboration from the start by authors with their publishers. This is a deliberate measure to ensure that the submitted manuscripts are edited to a great extent before they are submitted for consideration.

COMPETITION STIPULATIONS

• Authors must be residents and nationals of Tanzania.
• Winning authors from the previous year’s competition are not permitted to submit a manuscript until the following year in order to and avoid monopoly of the award by the same.

• The length of the manuscript should be between 30,000-40,000 words (equivalent to approximately 90-120 pages)
• The manuscript should be in chapter form
• The manuscript should be type-written and double spaced
• The font type should be Times New Roman, font size 12

All manuscripts should be submitted to the Children’s Book Project office by 26th of March 2012 at 14:00, including a soft copy to cbpvitabu@yahoo.com.

JURYING PROCESS

Manuscripts will be reviewed by a qualified jury and assessed on the criteria set out above. The jury will determine a short-list of titles eligible to win prizes once they are further edited and published into books.

PUBLISHING OF MANUSCRIPTS: FROM MANUSCRIPT TO PUBLISHED BOOK

Shortlisted manuscripts will be furthered rewritten and edited by the authors with their publishers. Only once the titles are fully edited and in published book format will they be reviewed again by the jury to award first, second and third prize. There is no guarantee that shortlisted titles will win prizes. Only those that are of the highest quality are worthy and eligible of being prize winners.

AWARDS FOR WINNING AUTHORS

• 1st Prize in Canadian $9,000
• 2nd Prize in Canadian $7,000
• 3rd Prize in Canadian $5,000

As part of the Award, publishers will receive a guaranteed purchase of a portion of three-fifths of the printed copies produced. Those copies purchased by CBP through the Award will be distributed to the Children’s Book Project’s network of supported schools and other community libraries. The publishers will be responsible for making the other copies available to the general public.

NOTE: CBP invites writers who need assistance in promoting their writing to publishers to contact CBP who can help facilitate manuscripts being sent to publishers for their consideration.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: cbpvitabu@yahoo.com or codehq@codecan.org

For submissions: Ali Hassan Mwinyi Rd. 39B Ursino South, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with a soft copy sent to cbpvitabu@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.cbp.or.tz