The Caine Prize for African Writing has announced its full list of judges for 2026. This year’s panel assembles a mix of talent and expertise spanning arts and culture at the highest level. Joining Bola Mosuro (chair of judges) will be the writer Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, curator Orsod Malik, writer/translator Siphiwo Mahala and actor/playwright/composer Sheila Atim.
Commenting on this year’s panel, Ellah Wakatama, chair of the Caine Prize, said: “Over the years, we have been intentional about challenging the idea that there is such a thing as a ‘Caine Prize story’ and, by extension, an ‘African story’. One of the ways we have achieved this is by assembling panels of cultural producers drawn from different disciplines, geographies, generations and lived experiences, united by one purpose – valorising the best short stories being written today.”
Wakatama added: “As publishers continue to submit work, we invite them to let go of inherited assumptions about what an ‘ideal’ story looks like. We champion boldness – of form, perspective, genre and themes – and we urge writers to push beyond the familiar edges of their practice.”
She welcomed the judges, saying: “Bola, Nana, Orsod, Siphiwo and Sheila are unequivocally aligned in this belief, and they are eagerly waiting for your submissions and the stories that will surprise us all.”
The judges
This year’s chair of judges is the Nigerian journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Bola Mosuro. She began her career working for the Institute for African Alternatives and as a board member of Akina Mama wa Afrika.
For over three decades, Mosuro was a familiar voice to listeners of the BBC World Service, presenting its flagship shows Network Africa, Focus on Africa and Newsday. She has also produced many standalone documentaries, such as The Story of Africa, a radio history series for the BBC. She is the presenter for Shepherd’s Eye in the Sky (Loftus Media/BBC World Service, airs 31 January 2026) and hosts the podcast series Dynamic Drylands, focusing on nomadic peoples and rangelands in Africa. This year she will launch her own podcast – Breaking Bread with Bola.
Also on the panel is Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, a Ghanaian-American author and editor of fiction, non-fiction and poetry for children, teenagers and adults. Her books for young people include the picture book Blue: a History of the Colour as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky and the young adult novel Powder Necklace.
Brew-Hammond’s work for adults includes My Parents’ Marriage: a Novel; she is also the editor of Relations: an Anthology of African and Diasporan Voices.
Orsod Malik is a Sudani curator, writer and researcher who is the executive director of the London-based Stuart Hall Foundation. He is a trustee of the Common Guild, a visual arts organisation in Glasgow. Malik’s work explores transnational cultural and political entanglements in historical narratives, pointing the way to the possibility of shared histories. He has curated exhibitions and developed programmes for bodies such as the Stuart Hall Foundation, Black Cultural Archives, Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva), Prince Claus Fund and British Council.
Siphiwo Mahala is a multi-award-winning South African writer and academic who works in English and isiXhosa. He is a graduate of the University of Fort Hare, holds a Master’s degree in African literature from Wits University and a PhD in English literature from the University of South Africa. He translated his own novel When a Man Cries (2007) into isiXhosa as Yakhal’ Indoda (2010). Mahala’s short story collections include African Delights (2011), Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories (2019) and The Missing Pages (2025).
Mahala is the author of two critically acclaimed plays – The House of Truth (2016) and Bloke and His American Bantu (2021). His monograph Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi (2022) won the Creative Non-Fiction Award at the South Africa Literary Awards in 2023. He is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Johannesburg.
Sheila Atim is a Ugandan-British actress, singer, composer and playwright. Her film credits include The Woman King (which earned her a BAFTA Rising Star nomination and the 2022 Chopard Trophy at Cannes), Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Mufasa and Pinocchio, Bruised (TIFF Rising Star Award), Dust Bunny and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. Her work for television includes the sci-fi miniseries Blade Runner 2099 (due out on Amazon Prime Video), The Underground Railroad, Harlots and The Pale Horse (BBC).
Atim has appeared on stage in London at the Donmar Warehouse (Shakespeare trilogy) and Shakespeare’s Globe (Othello). She won the 2018 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her star role in Girl from the North Country (Old Vic/Noël Coward) and the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in Constellations, also at the Donmar. Atim holds an MBE for services to drama.
About the Caine Prize
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual award for African creative writing. The Prize is awarded for a short story (of between 3,000 and 10,000 words) by an African writer and published in English. The prize honours the late Sir Michael Caine (1927-99), the former chairman of Booker plc who chaired the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years.
The surviving African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature – Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee – are among the patrons of the Caine Prize. Ellah Wakatama OBE (Hon) FRSL is the overall chair.
Among past winners of the prize are Leila Aboulela (Sudan, 2000), Helon Habila (Nigeria, 2001), Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya, 2002), Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe, 2004), Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda, 2007), Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa, 2008), Olufemi Terry (Sierra Leone, 2010), Tope Folarin (Nigeria/US, 2013), Okwiri Oduor (Kenya, 2014), Namwali Serpell (Zambia/UK/US, 2015), Lidudumalingani Mqombothi (South Africa, 2016), Bushra al-Fadil (Sudan/Canada, 2017), Meron Hadero (Ethiopia/US, 2021), Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo (Senegal, 2023) and Nadia Davids (South Africa, 2024).
Nigerian writers have dominated the prize since its inception in 2000, winning seven times and figuring in all but six Caine shortlists. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was shortlisted in 2002. Five Kenyans and four South Africans have also won the award.
No writer from Ghana has won the prize so far but Ghanaians have been shortlisted on five occasions. Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s “Mallam Sile” was nominated in 2008 and Mamle Kabu’s “The End of Skill” (from the Picador Africa anthology Dreams, Miracles and Jazz: New Adventures in African Fiction) was shortlisted in 2009. Also shortlisted were Efemia Chela (Zambia/Ghana, 2014), Nana-Ama Danquah and Billie McTernan in 2022 and Tryphena Yeboah in 2024 “The Dishwashing Women”).
The Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo (Caine Prize, 2011) won the 2025 Best of Caine Award for her story “Hitting Budapest”.
The 2026 Caine Prize judges will meet in September to select and announce a winner from the five shortlisted authors. Each writer shortlisted will be awarded £500 and the winner will receive £10,000. If a work in translation wins, the prize will be split 70% to the author and 30% to the translator.
The five shortlisted stories will be published in the official 2026 Caine Prize anthology alongside other African stories from a live workshop to be held this spring.
Entries to this year’s Caine Prize close at midnight on 27 February. The five shortlisted stories and their authors will be announced on 1 September 2026.
For more information on this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing, click here.
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