📅 Thursday, 8 May 2025
🕕 6 PM (BST)
🌐 Online (Zoom)
About the event
Barefaced: The Stories We Hide, The Stories We Tell is an online literary event celebrating the 2025 Afritondo Short Story Prize shortlist.
Taking place on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at 6 PM (BST) via Zoom, the evening will bring together this year’s shortlisted writers for a conversation about the stories that inspired their work and the competition’s central theme of masks.
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear readings, gain insights into the creative process, and engage with some of the most exciting new voices in African and diaspora literature.
This event promises an intimate exploration of the hidden and the revealed, spotlighting Afritondo’s commitment to storytelling that connects and transforms.
Meet the shortlist
Efua Boadu
The Twenty-Eighth Day (Ghana / United Kingdom)
Efua’s short stories have been longlisted for the Afritondo Prize 2022, Mary Prince Award 2023, Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2024.
She has also been published on other platforms and is an editorial board member of The African Migration Report.
Mustapha Enesi
Mrs Coker and the Headless Masquerade (Nigeria)
Mustapha is the joint winner of the 2023 Bridport Short Story Prize (Young Writers Award) for his short story, One Good Thing.
Emelda Nyaradzai Gwitimah
Bible Blues (Zimbabwe / Canada)
Emelda holds an MFA in Writing and Publishing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Her work has been published in Lolwe, the Ake Review, among others.
Gift Nyoni
Heat (Zimbabwe / United Kingdom)
Gift is part of the 2024/25 London Library Emerging Writers Programme. His story, The Ritual Seat of the King, won the 2021 Guardian 4th Estate 4thWrite Prize.
Zoe Ngombane
To my right, the ocean, to my left, the hills (South Africa)
Zoe is an English graduate from the University of Pretoria.
Her novel was shortlisted for the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award.
Questions? Email us at admin@afritondo.com