It’s a pleasure to announce the ongoing fifth annual Golden Baobab Prize, a literary award that invites entries of unpublished African-inspired stories written for young audiences below the age of twelve! As you already, the mission of the Golden Baobab Prize is to inspire African writers to create enthralling African stories that will inspire the imaginations of generations of African children.
This year, Golden Baobab will award three prizes:
- The Picture Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers ages 6-8;
- The Early Chapter Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers ages 9-11;
- The Rising Writer Prize awards $1,000 to the most promising young writer below the age of 18.
RULES AND REGULATIONS:
Entrants must comply with all of the set rules and regulations. The submission deadline for 2013 is 11:59pm GMT Sunday, July 14, 2013. ALL entries will be acknowledged with an email to the address from which the entry was sent. The rules and regulations below are divided into those specific to the individual prizes and those general to the three prizes.
GOLDEN BAOBAB PRIZE FOR PICTURE BOOKS:
- Submissions must be stories between 700 and 2,000 words and intended for readers from ages 6-8 years old.
- Entrants may be any age and must be a citizen of an African country (a copy of a passport or comparable document will be required of winners). There is no restriction on race or geographical location.
- Entrants may enter up to five stories.
- Submissions must be stories between 5,000 and 10,000 words and intended for readers from ages 9-11 years old.
- Entrants may be any age and must be a citizen of an African country (a copy of a passport or comparable document will be required of winners). There is no restriction on race or geographical location.
- Entrants may enter up to five stories.
- Submissions must be stories between 5,000 and 10,000 words and intended for readers from ages 9-11 years old.
- Stories must be submitted with a completed Rising Writer Personal Profile Form which is a word document saved as “Your Last Name_Rising Writer Personal Profile”. The form should answer the following questions designed to inform us how well you fit the criteria for the Rising Writer Prize. Your answers may be used for promotional purposes upon the conclusion of judging. The questions are:
- First and Last Name:
- Title of story submission:
- Nationality:
- Male or Female:
- Age:
- Date of birth:
- Who is your favorite author and why? (100 words maximum)
- Who and/or what inspires you to write children’s fiction? (100 words maximum)
- What are your aspirations as an author? (100 words maximum)
- Why do you write? (500 words maximum)
- In addition to the Rising Writer Personal Profile and the 5,000 - 10,000 word story intended for readers 9-11 years old, Rising Writer Prize entrants may enter four additional stories meeting either the Picture Book Prize or the Early Chapter Book Prize specifications. It is not compulsory to submit additional stories but it may enhance an entrant's application if judges are able to see the breadth of the entrants writing capabilities.
- Entrants must be under the age of 18 as of July 14, 2013, and a citizen of an African country (a copy of a passport or comparable document will be required of winners). There is no restriction on race or geographical location.
- There are no restrictions on theme, but stories must be set in Africa or have a very evident African content and should be designed to enthrall and captivate African children.
- Submissions must be in English.
- Submissions must be made under an author’s legal name, as it is written on his or her passport or other identification. Additionally, he or she may indicate a desire for the story to be represented under a pseudonym.
- Previous entrants of the Prize are eligible to enter in subsequent years. Past winners of the Prize are ineligible to enter in subsequent years.
- All entries must be the unaided work of the entrant and all exclusive rights to the story should be the sole property of the author at the time of submission to the Golden Baobab Prize.
- Submissions must be previously unpublished anywhere in part or in full.
- Each story should have a title page stating: the title of story and prize to which story is being submitted. Do not include the author's name on the title page. All biographical information should be submitted through our online submission system.
- Stories should be submitted as a word document in .doc or .docx format. Do not submit PDFs.
- Once winners are announced, all rights to winning and shortlisted stories must be exclusively available for publication with Golden Baobab's publishing partners. After one calendar year if Golden Baobab has not pursued a story for publication, entrants are welcome to give the rights of the story to other interested parties. Non-winning or non-shortlisted stories may be invited to publish with Golden Baobab's publishing partners but there is no guarantee.
- Golden Baobab reserves non-exclusive rights to use stories submitted to the Prizes for press and promotion and for the website. Authors will always be informed and acknowledged.
- The Golden Baobab Prize administration reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not conform to set rules. No correspondence will be pursued in this regard.
Questions: info@goldenbaobab.org
Submissions: via the online form
Website: http://goldenbaobab.org/
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