The 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize theme announced

Short Story Day Africa is a non-profit organisation that brings together writers, readers, booksellers and publishers from all over the globe to write, submit, read, workshop and discuss stories.

The organisation established a day, 21st June which is the shortest day of the year on which to celebrate the diversity of Africa’s voices and also a medium to tell the world, who Africans really are; what they love; to eat, read and write about.

The Short Story Day Africa was inspired by Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, speech at the TED Conference in 2009, where she spoke of the danger of the single story, a distorted, one-dimensional view of Africa that sees the continent only through a prism of war, disease, poverty, starvation and corruption. See report here.

The theme for this year's Short Story Day Africa is Water.  The deadline for submission of stories is 31 July. 

Interested candidates are to abide by the terms and conditions of entry below;

1. Any African citizen or person part of the African diaspora, as well as persons residing permanently (granted permanent residence or similar) in any African country, may enter.
2. Writers of all ages are welcome to enter.
3. Only writers 18 and over are eligible to win cash prizes.
4. Writers may only submit one story for the competition. Repeat entries by the same writer will be disqualified.
5. Stories must be between 3000 and 5000 words in length.
6. Stories must be submitted in English. While you are free to incorporate other languages into your story, the story must be able to be understood fully by its English content.
7. Stories must be submitted as a .doc (or similar) attachment to water@shortstorydayafrica.org, by 11:59pm CAT on 31 July 2015. Late entries or stories not attached in an appropriate manner will not be accepted.
8. To facilitate easy reading and judging, please format your stories according to the standard manuscript format stipulated below. Stories not formatted in this way are at the risk of being disqualified.
9. Stories must not have been previously published in any form or any format.
10. Simultaneous submissions are not welcome. Any story entered or published elsewhere during the course of judging or publication will be disqualified.
11. You are welcome to enter under a pseudonym or nom de plume, as long as you also include your real name along with your entry. (Guidelines on how to handle this in your entry can be found in the standard manuscript format below.)
12. All entries will be judged anonymously, i.e. with names removed.
13. The judges' decision is final.
14. By submitting a story the author attests that it is their own original work and grants non-exclusive global print and digital rights to Short Story Day Africa; non-exclusive digital rights to Worldreader to publish individual stories on Worldreader Mobile; and non-exclusive global print and digital rights to Short Story Day Africa and BooksLive for publicity purposes.
15. By entering, the author agrees to allowing Short Short Story Day Africa to include their entry in an anthology should it be selected by the judges; and to working with editors to get their story publication ready.
16. Your personal information will not be shared with anyone. We will, however, add you to Short Story Day Africa mailing list for the sole purpose of informing you of next year’s event.

Standard manuscript format

Your work should be in 'standard manuscript format' (or “SMF”) when submitting. Also have in mind  the following guidelines:

• Type your document, using a single, clear font, 12-point size, double-spaced. The easiest font to use is Times New Roman, or a similar serif font.
• Include your name and contact information at the top left of the first page. Put an accurate word count at the top right. Put the title of your story halfway down the page, centred, with a byline underneath. Start the story beneath that.
• If you write under a pseudonym, put that beneath the title – but remember to include your real name in the top left of the first page.
• Put your name, story title and the page number as a right-justified header on every subsequent page, in the format: Name/Title/Page Number. Generally, you can also just use a keyword from your title and not repeat the whole thing on each page.
• Left-justify your paragraphs.
• Ensure there is at least a 1 inch or 2 centimetre margin all the way around your text. This is to allow annotation to be written onto a printed copy.
• Indent each new paragraph by about 1/2 inch or 1 centimetre, except for the first line of the story or the first line of a new scene. 
• Don’t insert extra lines between your paragraphs. A blank line indicates a new scene.
• Put the word “End” after the end of your text, centred, on its own line.
• If you are printing out your submission (rather than submitting it electronically), print on plain white paper, on only one side of each sheet. Don't staple your pages together or bind them in any way, but package them up well so that they won't get damaged and send them off.

Good Luck!