Last year, the PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Literary Magazine Short Story Competition unearthed 18 aspiring writers, who will soon become published authors in their own right.
This year, at least R13 500 in prizes has been set aside courtesy of the National Arts Council, Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the Presidential Employment Stimulus 3, in what has become South Africa’s premier short story competition to date. In total, the National Arts Council funded the magazine at a tune of R200 000, with R13 500 set aside for the prizes.
PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Magazine co-founder Thokozani Magagula said the short story competition, which she and her partner Sukoluhle Mdlongwa initially funded from their own pockets, kicked off in January 2022 and drew over 200 budding writers who participated in the program.
“Each month, writers submit short stories of between 1800 and 2500 words,” she said. “The stories are then posted on the magazine Facebook page, and readers vote for the best story of the month. The story with the most votes wins R500.”
To further encourage creativity and commitment to the craft, PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Magazine also introduced the Publisher’s Choice Award, for the story that is well-written, has little or no grammatical errors and adheres to the theme. The award is worth R1000. The Publisher’s Choice Award is aimed at encouraging writers to put more effort into their work.
Thanks to the support from the National Arts Council’s Presidential Employment Stimulus 3, the competition will now be funded until September 2023. In October annually, the monthly winners will be requested to submit two short stories each, which will then be published in a short story anthology. The anthology is aimed at helping the writers to finally launch their writing careers.
“In-between, we offer mentoring programs, based on the areas we identified to be lacking in each writer’s work,” said Thokozani. “The 2022 leg of the program is nearing completion and 18 bright writers have been unearthed. These gifted scribes include the youth, women and the disabled. The majority of the writers are from previously marginalised communities from as far as the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, the Free State, Northern Cape, North West and some rural parts of Mpumalanga.”
The anthology containing the works of the 2022 winners will be released in March 2023. PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Magazine will also assist the writers to launch solo projects. The 2023 programme is already underway. The submission window for January will open on 9 January and close 20 January.
To get in touch with PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Magazine, call or WhatsApp 084 311 8838.
Photo: PUBLISH’D AFRIKA Magazine co-founder Thokozani Magagula is in a drive to unearth writing talent.
