Deadline: 24 June 2012
Golden Baobab Prize, an African literary award whose goal is to inspire the creation of African stories that children and young adults the world over will love! Today, the prize is run by a passionate volunteer team from all over the world and is sponsored by the Global Fund for Children and the African Library Project. As we enter our third year, we’re hoping to enter into even more fruitful partnerships that will bring us closer to our goal: that of ensuring stellar African children’s stories are in bookstores all over the world in the years to come.
The Golden Baobab Prize invites entries of unpublished African-inspired stories written for an audience of ages 8-11 years or 12-15 years. This year ,the prize will award $1,000 to the best story in the junior category as well as the senior category and $800 to the most promising young writer (18 years and below).
ELIGIBILITY
- The author must be a citizen of an African state or a dual citizenship holder (a copy of a passport or comparable document will be required of winners).
- African citizens of all ages qualify to present submissions.
- There is no restriction on race or geographical location.
- Writers below the ages of 18 years will be automatically considered for the Rising Writer Prize.
TIMELINE
Closing date for submissions to The Golden Baobab 2012: Midnight GMT, Sunday, June 24, 2012. Winners Announced: First week of November, 2012.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Contestants and entries must comply with ALL of the following criteria. Works that do not conform to the rules will be disqualified.*
- Submitted stories should fall into either Category A (stories for readers aged 8-11 years) or Category B (stories for readers aged 12-15 years).
- Entry should be a work of fiction between 1,000 to 5,000 words. The category a story falls into may influence its length.
- There are no restrictions on themes but stories must be set in Africa or have a very evident African content.
- Stories should be in written in English and should not have been previously published elsewhere, in part or in full.
- Pseudonyms may not be used. Entries must be submitted under entrant's real name.
- Entrants may enter up to five stories.
- All entries must be the unaided work of the entrant.
- Previous entrants and winners of the Prize are eligible to enter in subsequent years.
- The title page of submissions should state the category and title of the story. All biographical information should be sent in the body of submission email.
ALL entries will be acknowledged with an email to the address from which the entry was sent.
The Golden Baobab Prize administration reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not conform to set rules. No correspondence will be entered into in this regard.
SUBMITTING YOUR STORY
Entries should be submitted as typed Microsoft word or PDF documents. There should be a title page with the following information:
- Title of Story:
- Category:
- Age of entrant:
The body of the email should include the following personal information:
- Name:
- Title of story:
- Age of entrant:
- Country of citizenship:
- Category:
- Email:
- Phone number (country code-area code- number):
- How I heard about the Golden Baobab Prize (just a sentence or two):
PRIZES
- Best Story written for ages 8-11 years $1000
- Best Story written for ages 12 -15 years $1000
- Promising writer below age 18 years: $800
Outstanding stories are connected with publishers all over the world.
FAQ
Q: What if I am not an African citizen but have lived in Africa for a long time?
You must be an African citizen to be considered for the Golden Baobab Prize because one of our goals is to encourage the next generation of African writers. All winning entrants will be asked to submit a photocopy of their state passport (or comparable document) to confirm their citizenship.
Q: What will the judges be looking out for?
The Golden Baobab Prize is looking for stories that will be loved by children and young adults all over the world. A winning story is one that immediately stands out and is imaginative, refreshing and well written.
Q: The GBP states that all "entries must be the unaided work of the entrant." Does this mean we cannot ask someone to check the grammar, punctuation or give us their opinion about the story?
The entrant must be the one who wrote the story fully. That is, you cannot submit a story written by someone else. But once your story is written you can by all means ask someone to read it and assist with edits.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For inquiries: email questions to info@goldenbaobab.org Use "Question" in the subject line
For submissions: submissions will be accepted as email attachments to submit@goldenbaobab.org
Website: http://www.goldenbaobab.org