Erica Sugo Anyadike & Erica Sugo Anyadike 
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2020 

Now in its 21st year, the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is African’s leading literary prize, and is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere.



The collection brings together the five stories on the 2020 shortlist. The authors shortlisted for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize are:

– Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for Fisherman’s Stew

– Rémy Ngamije (Rwanda/Namibia) for The Neighbourhood Watch

– Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria) for Grace Jones

– Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) for How to Marry an African President

– Chikodili Emeladu (Nigeria) for What to do when your child brings

home a Mami Wata



The 2020 judging panel comprises:

– Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp (Chair) has over 35 years’ experience in the UK arts and cultural sector, including a 25-year career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. Since May 2018 he has been Director of The Africa Centre.



– Audrey Brown is a South African broadcast journalist, who currently presents the BBC World Service flagship daily news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. Gabriel Gbadamosi is an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. His London novel Vauxhall (2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair.



– James Murua is a Kenya-based blogger, journalist, podcaster and editor who has written for a variety of media outlets in a career spanning print, web and TV.



– Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw is an Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor, podcaster, publisher and policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands.

Über den Autor

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British writer. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Observer, The Guardian, the BBC and the Huffington Post amongst other publications. Her short stories have been published internationally including Salt’s Best British Short Stories 2017, Kwani? and The Year’s Best Weird Fiction. She was presented at the London Short Story Festival by Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri as a dynamic writing talent to watch and featured in the Evening Standard Magazine as one of London’s exciting new authors. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular, published by Jacaranda Books, was shortlisted for the Edgehill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her new collection of stories, Nudibranch, is published by Little Brown’s Dialogue Books and ‘Grace Jones’ first appeared in that book. www.irenosenokojie.com Twitter: @Irenosen Okojie