SIbongile Fisher’s “A Door Ajar” story has won the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction. Her story, which centers around two sisters trying to escape a gruesome family custom, explores the conflict between tradition and modernity. It is the fourth speculative short story written by a woman to scoop the R10 000 prize, which was first won in 2012 by Kenyan Okwiri Oduor, who went on to win the following year’s Caine Prize for African Writing.
“Tea”, TJ Benson’s (@TJBensonNG)love story in the time of exploitation, is first runner-up. Benson uses the relationship between a Nigerian girl and a German boy, who are thrown together in the worst of circumstances, to investigate what makes us different, and whether it is more important than what makes us the same.
Farang” by Megan Ross is second runner-up. Ross uses her considered prose to tell a story about the end of naivety, exoticism and otherness. Set in Thailand, “Farang” is part travelogue, part coming-of-age tale, and beautifully encapsulates the awkward space one occupies in being an outsider in another country.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Credit: SSDA website