The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2020

Erica Sugo Anyadike is a Tanzanian writer based in Kenya. She began her career in South Africa as a screenwriter and worked in various capacities in the television sector. As a broadcaster, she created briefs and commissioned television series that dealt with issues such as apartheid, sexuality and gender. She continued that trend, when she began to produce her own content, never shying away from events and issues that intrigued her but always ensuring she kept her focus on characters, emotions and story. Apart from short films and television series, Erica has also written several short stories. In 2019, Erica was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing Prize. Erica’s interests lie in depicting complex African female characters and mentoring young filmmakers and writers. She is writing a novel and living in Kenya with her family. ‘How to Marry an African President’ was first published by addastories.org in 2019.Twitter: @SugoErica

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ is an author whose work has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, a Nommo Award, and the Caine Prize for African Literature. Dazzling won the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize for a work in progress. She was born in Nottinghamshire, England, and raised in Nigeria. She attended two Nigerian boarding schools and Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Rémy Ngamije is a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer. He won the Africa Regional Prize of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2021 and 2020. He is the founder of the Doek Arts Trust, an arts organization which publishes Doek! Literary Magazine, the country’s first literary magazine which he cofounded and serves as editor-in-chief. His work has been supported by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Miles Morland Foundation and has been featured in literary festivals in Accra, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Berlin, and Basel. More of his writing can be read on his website: RemyTheQuill.com.

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novels, Butterfly Fish and Curandera, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. She won the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for her short story 'Grace Jones'. Her journalism has been featured in the New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. She was a contributing editor for And Other Stories. She co-presented the BBC's Turn Up for The Books podcast alongside Bastille frontman Dan Smith and Simon Savidge. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including being chair of judges for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the RSL Fellowship election panel. She was a judge for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Formerly the vice chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was named a visionary artist in Red magazine's 'The next 25 visionaries to watch' and awarded an MBE for services to Literature. She is the founder and director of Black to the Future Festival.