{"id":78,"date":"2016-12-08T06:56:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T06:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.shortstorydayafrica.org\/?p=78"},"modified":"2016-12-08T06:56:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T06:56:12","slug":"a-door-ajar-wins-the-2016-short-story-day-africa-prize-for-short-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shortstorydayafrica.org\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"“A Door Ajar” wins 2016 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction!"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The Cover Revealed! Artwork and typesetting by Nick Mulgrew.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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“She grabbed the wailing infant and threw it against the wall.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“A Door Ajar” by Sibongile Fisher has won the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction. Fisher’s story, which centers around two sisters trying to escape a gruesome family custom, explores the conflict between tradition and modernity. The raw energy of the writing impressed the judging panel, who were unanimous in their decision. 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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“She is Tiv and knows no English.” <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Tea”, TJ Benson’s 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.<\/p>\n

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“N\u00e8ung<\/strong>
A cross<\/strong> the road from my childhood home is a stretch of <\/strong>ordinary<\/strong>
veld.” <\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

The judging panel, chaired by Sindiwe Magona, called the long list of twenty-one stories “outstanding”, adding that all the stories deserve to be published. <\/p>\n

The Prize, started in 2012, is worth R10 000, with second and third place cash prizes of R2 000 and R1 000 respectively. The twenty-one long listed stories are collected in Migrations: New Short Fiction from Africa<\/em>, edited by Efemia Chela, Bongani Kona and Helen Moffett, and due for release in January 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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