Egyptian, Moroccan Stories Make 2018 ‘Short Story Day Africa’ Longlist

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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For the second year in a row, Moroccan writer Chourouq Nasri has made the twenty-one-story longlist of the Short Story Day Africa Prize:

Last year, Nasri was longlisted for her “Blue in Green.” This year, it’s for “Outside Riad Dahab.”

Egyptian author Adam El Shalakany also made the longlist for his “Happy City Hotel.”

Prize organizers said of that story:

We’re also seeing a greater number of stories from previously under-represented countries. It’s wonderful to be publishing writers like Adam El Shalakany from Egypt, who has entered the SSDA Prize in the past but has never been placed. His story “Happy City Hotel” was one of the unanimous decisions, of which there were only six out of the twenty-one.

The prize was founded in 2013, and is open to any African citizen or African person living in the diaspora. It offers $800 to its winner, as well as $200 to a second-place entry, and $100 for third place. The theme for this year’s prize was “Hotel Africa,” and all of the longlisted stories will be published in the anthology Hotel Africa: New Short Fiction from Africa, to be edited by Helen Moffett.

Chourouq Nasri is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at Mohammed I University in Oujda, Morocco, and her research focuses on Francophone and Anglophone Moroccan literature and film. She’s also a filmmaker, and was one of the co-editors of North African Women after the Arab Spring: In the Eye of the Storm Hardcover (2017).

Adam El Shalakany is a Cairo-based “writer by night and a lawyer by day.”

The full longlist:

‘The Satans Inside My Jimmy’ by Harriet Anena (Uganda)

‘The Jollof Cook-off’ by Nkiacha Atemnkeng (Cameroon)

‘The Last Resident’ by Jayne Bauling (South Africa)

‘Mr Thompson’ by Noel Cheruto (Kenya)

‘The Layover’ by Anna Degenaar (South Africa)

‘A Miracle In Valhalla’ by Nnamdi Fred (Nigeria)

‘Of Birds and Bees’ by Davina Kawuma (Uganda)

‘Maintenance Check’ by Alinafe Malonje (Malawi)

‘Why Don’t You Live in the North?’ by Wamuwi Mbao (South Africa)

‘Slow Road to the Winburg Hotel’ by Paul Morris (South Africa)

‘The Snore Monitor’ by Chido Muchemwa (Zimbabwe)

‘Outside Riad Dahab’ by Chourouq Nasri (Morocco)

‘Broken English’ by Adorah Nworah (Nigeria)

‘Queens’ Children’s Little Feet’ by Godwin Oghenero Estella (Nigeria)

‘Door of No Return’ by Natasha Omokhodion-Banda (Zambia)

‘An Abundance of Lies’ by Faith Oneya (Kenya)

‘The Match’ by Troy Onyango (Kenya)

‘Supping at the Fountain of Lethe’ by Bryony Rheam (Zimbabwe)

‘Happy City Hotel’ by Adam El Shalakany (Egypt)

‘The Space(s) Between Us’ by Lester Walbrugh (South Africa)

‘Shithole’ by Michael Yee (South Africa)

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