Since 2020, TYWA has been our flagship annual project, a highly competitive short story contest designed to spotlight and reward outstanding young writers. If you’ve got a story that needs to be heard, TYWA is your stage.
Winners Receive:
• Multiple cash prizes of up to ₦300,000.
1. TYWA 2025 Winner receives ₦100,000
2. TYWA 2025 First Runner-Up receives ₦50,000
3. TYWA 2025 Second Runner-Up receives ₦50,000
4. TYWA Essay Prize 2025 winner receives ₦50,000
5. The ReadWorthy Prize 2025 Winner receives additional ₦50,000
• Awards and publication in our annual short story anthology, The Sound of Our Own Voices.
• The chance to be recognized as one of Africa’s rising literary stars.
• A stepping stone to greater literary opportunities in the writing world.
• More exclusive rewards to be announced.
Are you ready to tell your story? Here’s how to enter:
• Open to young writers between the ages of 13-22.
• Write your absolute best short story—this is a competitive contest!
• Keep it within 200-400 words (including the title).
• Any theme is welcome, but your story must be in prose format (no poetry or plays). Also, stories must be centred around people - not animals or any other non-human characters.
• Only one submission per writer. Creativity and originality are key. Be bold, be different!
• When submitting your stories, you will be required to provide the following details:
- Full name
- Age
- Address
- Guardian’s name and contact (email and phone number)
- School's name (If applicable)
- School representative’s name and contact where applicable (email and phone number).
• You will also be asked to provide a clear photo of yourself shortly after your submission (This is vital to the processing of your entry).
• The deadline for accepting submissions for TYWA 2025 is April 20th, 2025.
• The top winners are chosen by the judges and must have exceeded 70% in our ratings. Essentially we look out for creativity more than anything else.
• For enquiries, please send an email to submissions@thegoodfelo.com and thegoodfelo@gmail.com
• Please note that the email address used when submitting an entry will remain the primary contact for engaging the participants throughout the contest.
We know that stories are meant to be read, shared, and loved. That’s why we introduced the ReadWorthy Prize where the audience decides which TYWA story deserves special recognition. Not all great stories are chosen by judges, some are chosen by the people.
Here’s How It Works:
- Shortlisted stories from all contests are published across our platforms.
- Readers vote, comment, and engage with their favorites.
- The story with the highest engagement wins!
Further guidelines for this will be shared with the shortlisted contestants.
Why You Should Join The Movement
If you’re reading this, it means you have some affiliation with storytelling. Every writer starts somewhere. Every good story deserves to be told. We’re not just running contests, we’re building a literary movement where young African writers can dream, create, and thrive. If you’re a writer, a reader, or simply someone who believes in the power of storytelling, welcome home. TheGoodFelo is your tribe.
And, YES! There’s a lot you can do to support this cause, one of which is to spread the word.
Let’s shape the future of African literature now - one story at a time.
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