Ghana Writers Awards Call For Entries

The Ghana Writers Awards (GWA), an NGO committed to the literary arts industry, on Friday, July 15, this year opened its 2016 literary entries.

The entries are opened to all Ghanaian unpublished fictional writers. Three literary genres, including poetry, short story and flash fiction will be considered for the 2016 literary awards.

The Vice President of GWA, Mr Kingsley Kojo Antwi, said the purpose of the awards was to encourage reading and writing in Ghana.

He said the awards would also help revamp the Ghanaian literary arts sector, thus creating a thriving environment for creative writing.

He said entrants should submit original unpublished works to [email protected], having followed the entries procedure for the 2016 awards.

Mr Antwi said all interested entrants should visit social media platforms of GWA such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to read more about the awards.

He expressed the hope that the 2016 awards would be very competitive considering the pool of youth who were into writing.

GWA was established in 2013 as a non-governmental organisation to champion the Ghanaian literary arts industry by awarding both published and unpublished writers.

GUIDELINES FOR THE 2016 GHANA WRITERS AWARDS

How to enter:
To participate in this contest, entrants are required to read all instructions and rules regarding this award. There are no fees associated with entry. In order to be eligible, writers must meet all the criteria outlined below.

(1) Any entry shall be e-mailed to [email protected]. The first page of any entry shall contain the following information: the category of work, the entrant’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and a computer word count of the work.

(2) By participating in the Ghana Writers Awards (GWA) contest, each entrant represents and warrants that:

(i) The submission is original to the entrant, and all right, title and interest (including but not limited to copyright) therein and thereto is exclusively owned and/or controlled by the entrant to the full extent necessary.

(ii) The submission does not contain any material that is libelous, defamatory, profane or obscene.

(iii) The submission does not contain any material that promotes, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;

(iv) The submissions shall be deemed to be submitted by the authorised account holder of the e-mail address associated with the entry.

Eligibility rules
1. Published work is not eligible for the 2016 Ghana Writers Awards.

2. Submissions should be made by the writer to the official email provided [email protected]. However, those without emails may do so through a family member (spouse, mother, father, teacher or guardian).

3. Only a fictional work is eligible for the 2016 Ghana Writers Awards.

4. Only a story per writer will be considered in the short story and flash fiction categories. However, poets are required to send three different poems with each poem not more than 30 lines.

5. Published works in any form, including personal blogs, online, magazines, and newspapers are not eligible in the 2016 Ghana Writers Awards.

6. Apart from the specified works (poetry, short story, and flash fiction) any other literary genre is not eligible in the 2016 Ghana Writers Awards.

7. Any entry should be saved with the surname of writer plus the genre one is entering (eg Amankwah, Poetry or Amankwah, Flash Fiction or Amankwah, Short Story). The font type should be Times New Roman, and double spaced. Document should be saved in PDF format. All document should have page numbers.

8. The Flash Fiction is for only writers in Junior and Senior High Schools. Those who have completed either JHS or SHS and are waiting for their results are not part of this category.

9. All works which do not conform to the outlined guidelines will be rejected.

10. If you are not clear about any information regarding the eligibility process, please email us on [email protected] .