MEET THE LONGLIST
Meet the 2026 ASSP longlist—15 exceptional writers selected from over 760 submissions across 40+ countries.
Their stories respond to the theme "transition" with striking range and depth, from intimate personal reckonings to expansive narratives of migration, community, and reinvention.
Congratulations to all 15 longlisted writers.
Joe Ruzvidzo
Joe Ruzvidzo is a Zimbabwean writer and freelance journalist based in Geneva, Switzerland. His work explores migration, identity, and displacement, often drawing on lived experience and the political realities shaping contemporary mobility. Alongside fiction, he has worked for more than two decades across journalism, technology, sport, and human rights.
He is the author of the short story collection Behind Enemy Lines and Other Stories (2017) and the novel Welcome to Anywhere (2025). His creative and nonfiction writing has appeared in outlets such as Brittle Paper and Radio France Internationale, and he has also written widely online through his own platforms and independent media projects. Shortlisted for the 2023 and 2025 Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarships, he is currently pursuing a PhD on structural barriers to reform in United Nations human rights mechanisms.
Baone Peace Moalosi
Baone Peace Moalosi is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter from Botswana, celebrated for her emotionally rich, character-driven storytelling. Her work delves into themes of trauma, grief, love, survival, and mental health, offering readers raw emotional honesty and a fearless exploration of human resilience.
She is the author of “Outside The Liquor Store”, a melodramatic romance novel that won second place in the Best English Novel category and also won the prestigious Bessie Head Prize at the Botswana Literature Awards.
She also authored “The Things We Carry”, a poignant collection of interconnected stories about the hidden burdens we all carry — the scars we conceal, the grief we bury, and the silent battles we fight every day.
She is currently working on “Surrender”, which is her most ambitious work yet. It is a raw, unflinching exploration of what it means to live, break, and keep going. Blending lyrical prose with emotional intensity, Surrender is a powerful testament to the beauty and brutality of being human, and the quiet strength it takes to choose healing.
Peace is also the screenwriter of the upcoming TV series, “While The Rest Of Us Die”, a gripping four-episode series that rips open the silence surrounding domestic violence, gender-based trauma, and mental health in relationships.
All in all, Baone Peace Moalosi has dabbled in a little bit of everything creatively, from drawing and painting to screenwriting, because stories don’t just belong on pages; they belong on canvases, on screens, in hearts, in the silence between breaths.
Owen Habel Lwanda
Owen Habel Lwanda is a contemporary Kenyan poet known for his deeply emotional and reflective style. His work explores themes of memory, loss, identity, and quiet resilience. He is recognised for crafting simple yet haunting imagery that lingers with readers.
His work has appeared in Roughcut Press, Rough Diamond, Floating Acorn Review, Brittle Paper, and elsewhere.
Oluwatobi Adedayo
Oluwatobi Adedayo is a writer and journalist. He won the 2025 Gerald Kraak Prize and was shortlisted for the 2024 Iskanchi Prize for Experimental Writing.
A staff writer at Open Country Mag, he has been published in Guernica, Lolwe, The Offing, etc. He has a B.A. in English Language from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and currently studies for a Master’s at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Previously, he published as Adesomola Adedayo.
Ekenedirichukwu Alita
Ekenedirichukwu Alita writes from Abakaliki, Nigeria. His work explores human psychology, memory, grief, and the fragile emotional landscapes that shape everyday lives.
His writing has appeared in Libretto Magazine and Random Photo Journal. He was shortlisted for the 2024 Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature.
Joe Lyimo
Joe Lyimo is a Tanzanian musician and writer currently based in Vienna. With years of experience in writing poetry, short stories, and spoken words. Joe’s artistic work addresses themes of love, pain, and resilience.
A 2023 Goethe Talents scholar and former artist-in-residence at MuseumQuartier Vienna. His writing was featured in the 2024 “Luxuria” issue of Queer/Trans Magic Magazine by FortunaPress, marking his presence in the intersection of queer narrative and the esoteric.
Stephen Langtry
Stephen Langtry is a writer and educator based in Cape Town. He serves as Programme Coordinator for the BA degree at Cornerstone Institute and as Chairperson of the Board of the Camissa Museum, a space dedicated to the memory of the indigenous, enslaved, and displaced peoples of the Cape. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Inclusive Public Policy and sits on the Advisory Council of the Inclusive Society Institute.
His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Agbowó, the Mail & Guardian, Daily Maverick, The Johannesburg Review of Books, and New Frame. He holds a BA and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town.
Kerlly Telebwe
Kerlly Telebwe is a Zambian writer and multimedia producer based in Lusaka. He works across narrative media, drawing on literary and digital storytelling to explore identity, trauma, and social realities in contemporary African communities. His work is rooted in psychologically grounded stories that surface hidden voices, reveal fresh perspectives, and foster understanding across cultures and generations.
He is currently focused on bringing his literary and dramatic work to audiences on both page and screen.
Quinton Manning
Quinton Manning is a South African writer and editor. Quinton is completing a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Witwatersrand, working on a collection of folkloric horror stories.
Quinton has authored two books: a multilingual children’s book, Nutrition Adventures: Unawo umorogo?, and a poetry collection, Lazy Love Letter.
Wame M. Molefhe
Wame M. Molefhe is a Botswana-born writer based in Gaborone. Her published works include two short story collections, Just Once (2009) and Go Tell the Sun (2011), with short fiction appearing in journals and online publications.
She writes across fiction, film, and television, and is the founder of The AgaMotse Centre for Arts and Cultural Heritage.
Jeffrey Ehijie
Jeffrey Ehijie is a non-binary writer and journalist with a passion for storytelling that explores human vulnerability, memory, and resilience.
Their work often draws from personal and cultural experiences, weaving intimate narratives that reflect the complexities of everyday life. Their writing has appeared in Minority Africa, Kalahari Review, and the Marked Anthology, with more work forthcoming in other literary magazines.
They are honoured to be part of the Afritondo 2026 longlist.
Caiphus Mmino Mangenela
Caiphus Mmino Mangenela is a Safety, Health and Environment Specialist in the telecommunications industry, and an avid reader and writer.
In 2024, his children’s short story “My Goat Maghubukhwane” was featured in The Peculiar Tree, a Botswana children’s anthology edited by Zukiswa Wanner and published by the Gaborone Book Festival in collaboration with the University of East Anglia Creative Writing Programme.
His work has also appeared in the Jalada Africa FEAR Anthology, where his story “A Petition to the Heavens” features.
In 2017, he was selected as a Writivism mentee, working under acclaimed author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. During this time, his short story “The Year They Died” was published in the Transcending the Flame anthology.
He is also the 2016 winner of the Bessie Head Short Story Award for his story “A Mother Amongst the Stars.”
Caiphus just finished writing his first novel to be published in 2026.
Mali Kambandu
Mali Kambandu is a Zambian writer and Fiction Editor for the Ubwali Literary Magazine.
In 2024, Mali’s novel manuscript When the Shadows Call won runner-up in the Island Prize by Holland House.
In 2022, Mali guest edited Lolwe Literary magazine, Issue 5. That year, she was recognised as Brittle Paper Writer of the Month (June) for her piece When There Are No Words; her other story On That Side of the Fence appears in the same issue.
In 2018, Mali won the Kalemba Short Story Award in its inaugural year for the short story A Hand to Hold and was shortlisted for the Writivism Short Story Award for the story The Photograph.
Mali’s other work has appeared in several literary platforms, such as The Shallow Tales Review, Jaylit, Safundi, and Ubwali. In 2025, Mali conducted writing workshops or seminars targeted at emerging writers for the Southern Writer’s Bureau and Literary Denizens, supporting over twenty-five writers with their writing journey.
Lynette Sifiso
Lynette Sifiso is a Zimbabwean-American writer, visual artist, and cultural curator. She holds an MFA (Writing) from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, a Master’s in Conflict Resolution from Columbia University in New York City, and a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of South Africa.
Her body of work is multidisciplinary and concerns itself with creating spaces for dialogue between people, places, and things. Her writing practice spans creative nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid forms. She is currently writing her first collection of essays and a book of modern folktales. Her visual art is an extension of her writing practice. She works with text-based art, asemic writing, collage and assemblage.
Her work is shaped by a combination of her African-Diasporic heritage and global worldviews.
June Ndurumo
June Ndurumo is a Kenyan writer documenting love, identity, and self-discovery through raw, reflective storytelling. Her work captures the tension between desire, vulnerability, and personal growth.
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