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8th Nommo Awards 2025 Nominations now open
Below are the Short List Nominees in each of the 4 categories and ALL respective nominees for the 2022 Nommo Awards:
Novel Short List (The Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African)
Novella Short List
Short Story Short List
Graphic Novel Short List
NOVEL SHORT LIST
THEY MADE US BLOOD AND FURY
Amazon KDP, 2021
Cheryl S. Ntumy
Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer of fiction in various genres, including speculative fiction, YA and romance. Her work has appeared in THE GODDESS OF MTWARA AND OTHER STORIES; WILL THIS BE A PROBLEM; Petlwana Journal of Creative Writing; Botswana Women Write Apex Magazine among others.
THE GILDED ONES
Delacorte Press, 2021
Namina Forna
Namina Forna has an MFA in film and TV production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA from Spelman College. She works as a screenwriter in LA and loves telling stories with fierce female leads. Visit her on Twitter at @NaminaForna and on Instagram at @namina.forna
SON OF THE STORM
Orbit US/Orbit UK, 2021
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Suyi Davies Okungbowa is an award-winning Nigerian author of fantasy and science fiction. His latest books include the epic fantasy trilogy, the Nameless Republic (including SON OF THE STORM and WARRIOR OF THE WIND). He lives in Ontario, Canada where he is a professor of English at the University of Ottawa.
FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN
Orbit Books 2021
Tade Thompson
Tade Thompson is the author of numerous novels, including the critically acclaimed sci-fi novel ROSEWATER the first in his award winning Wormwood Trilogy, MAKING WOLF, and most recently FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN as well as the Molly Southbourne series of novellas and several short stories. He has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nommo Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle award, and the Julia Verlange award, and been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the Shirley Jackson Prize, among others.
THE MADHOUSE
Masobe Books, 2021
T J Benson
TJ Benson is a writer and visual artist whose Africanfuturist collection of short stories WE WON’T FADE INTO DARKNESS’was published in 2018. THE MADHOUSE is his first novel. He lives in an apartment full of plants and is in the danger of becoming a cat person.
THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD
Tor Books, 2021
T. L. Huchu
T.L. Huchu’s work has appeared in Lightspeed, Interzone, Analog, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories, 2016, The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2021, and elsewhere. He is the winner of an Alex Award (2022), the Children’s Africana Book Award (2021), a Nommo Award for African SFF (2017), and has been shortlisted for the Grand prix de l'Imaginaire (2019). OUR LADY OF MYSTERIOUS AILMENTS is the latest instalment in his Edinburgh Nights fantasy series. Find him @TendaiHuchu”
NOVELLA SHORT LIST
THE FUTURE GOD OF LOVE
Luna Press, February 2021
Dilman Dila
Dilman Dila is a writer, filmmaker, and all round artist who lives in his home country, Uganda. He is the author of a critically acclaimed collection of short stories, A KILLING IN THE SUN. His two recent novellas are THE FUTURE GOD OF LOVE and A FLEDGLING ABIBA. He has been shortlisted for the BSFA Awards (2021) and for the Nommo Awards for Best Novella (2021), as well as for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2013), among many accolades. His short fiction has appeared in THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE YEAR VOLUME SIX and in THE BEST OF WORLD SF V.2 among other anthologies. His films have won multiple awards, and include the masterpiece WHAT HAPPENED IN ROOM 13 (2007) and THE FELISTAS FABLE (2013), which was nominated for Best First Feature by a Director at AMAA (2014). You can find his short films on patreon.com/dilstories and more about him on his website dilmandila.com
NOT SEEING IS A FLOWER
Eraserhead Press, 2021
Erhu Kome
Erhu Kome is an Urhobo writer of speculative fiction and on some rare occasions, normal stories. She is the first Nigerian female author of bizarro fiction. She loves anime, Bob's Burgers, and shows that have Eric Kripke involved in the making.
AN EXPLORATION OF NICHOLE OTIENO’S EARLY FILMOGRAPHY (1232-1246)
Strange Horizons September 2021
Kola Heyward-Rotimi
Kola Heyward-Rotimi is a writer and new media artist/scholar from Durham, NC. and he spent four years of his adolescence in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He will soon be starting his PhD at Stanford University in California. His work has been published in Reckoning, Blood Knife, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and Fiyah.
REMOTE CONTROL
Tor/Forge, Tordotcom, 2021
Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor, born in the United States to Igbo Nigerian parents, is a New York Times bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction for both adults and younger readers. She has received the World Fantasy, Nebula, Eisner and Lodestar Awards and multiple Hugo Awards, amongst others, for her books. Nnedi holds a PhD in Literature and two Master's Degrees (Journalism and Literature). She lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her daughter Anyaugo.
THE ABOMINATION
(The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September-October 2021)
Nuzo Onoh
Nuzo Onoh is a Nigerian-British writer of Igbo descent. She is a pioneer of the African horror literary subgenre. Hailed as the "Queen of African Horror”, Nuzo is also a trained Civil Funeral Celebrant, licensed to conduct non-religious burials. She currently resides in The West Midlands, UK, with her cat, Tinkerbell.
SHORT STORY SHORT LIST
THE BROTHER
Makena Onjerika
Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World ed. Eric J Guinard (Dark Moon Books, 2021
Makena Onjerika won the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing, was shortlisted for the 2020 Bristol Prize, and was a 2020 Best of the Net nominee. Her speculative fiction has appeared in Fireside Quarterly, BNEST OF AFRICAN SPECULATIVE FICTION, Adroit Journal and Isele Magazine. Find her on twitter as @onjerika
SHELTER
Mbozi Haimbre
Short Story Day Africa Prize, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, Catalyst Press September 2021 and Johannesburg Review of Books June 2021
Mbozi Haimbre was born and raised in Zambia, She has won awards for her short stories, ‘Madam’Sister’ and ‘Shelter.’ Whether speculative or contemporary, her fiction is inspired by her African childhood. Mbozi recently completed her debut novel, which explores climate change through an Afrofuturistic lens.
O2 ARENA
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a disabled African speculative fiction writer and editor in Nigeria. He is a multiple Hugo and Nebula awards finalist, and a two-time Nommo Award, Otherwise and British Fantasy Award winner. He's also a finalist in the Locus, Sturgeon, and British Science Fiction awards. He edited the first ever YEAR’S BEST SPECULATIVE FICTION anthology, the BRIDGING WORLDS non-fiction anthology, co-edited the anthology DOMINION, and the AFRICA RISEN anthology, forthcoming on Tordotcom. He founded Jembefola Press and the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award For Disability In Speculative Fiction.
MASQUERADE SEASON
‘Pemi Aguda
Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She has an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Her writing has won awards such as: a 2022 O. Henry Prize, a Henfield Prize, a Tyson Prize for Fiction, Hopwood Awards (for Novel, Short Fiction, Non-Fiction and Drama), and the 2015 Writivism Prize. She received a work-study scholarship from Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2018, an Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship from the Carl Brandon Society to attend the Clarion Workshop in 2019, as well as a 2019 Juniper Summer Workshop scholarship. She was a 2020 Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow, and her novel-in-progress won the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She is a 2021 Fiction Fellow with the Miami Book Fair, and a 2022 MacDowell fellow.
AND THIS IS HOW TO STAY ALIVE 1111
Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Fantasy Magazine, November 2020
Shingai Njeri Kagunda is an Afrofuturist freedom dreamer, Swahili sea lover, and Femme Storyteller among other things, hailing from Nairobi, Kenya. She is currently pursuing a Literary Arts MFA at Brown University. Shingai’s short story “Holding Onto Water” was longlisted for the Nommo Awards 2020 and her flash fiction “Remember Tomorrow in Seasons” was shortlisted for the Fractured Lit Prize 2020. She has been selected as a candidate for the Clarion UCSD Class of 2020/2021. #clarionghostclass. She is also the co-founder of Voodoonauts: an afrofuturist workshop for black writers.
DREAMPORTS
Tlotlo Tsamaase
Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana writer (xe/xem/xer or she/her pronouns). Xe is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, Rhysling Award nominee and xe has won the Nommo Award and the Bessie Head Short Story Award. You can find xem at tlotlotsamaase.com.
THE MANY LIVES OF AN ABIKU
Tobi Ogundiran
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 309 July 2021
Tobi Ogundiran is a Nigerian writer whose dark and fantastical tales have appeared in journals such as Lightspeed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies; and in several Year’s Best anthologies, including THE YEAR’S BEST FANTASY, ed. by Paula Guran and the YEAR’S BEST AFRICAN SPECULATIVE FICTION, ed. Oghenechovwe Ekpeki Donald. His work has been shortlisted for the Nommos, British Science Fiction Association, Shirley Jackson, and Igynte Awards. His debut collection JACKAL, JACKAL is out in 2023 from Undertow Publications. Find him at tobiogundiran.com and @tobi_thedreamer on Twitter.
AN ARC OF ELECTRIC SKIN
Wole Talabi
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September 2021, Reprinted in Apex Magazine, April 2022
Wole Talabi is a Nigerian engineer, writer, and editor. His stories have appeared in Asimov’s, F&SF and more. He edited three anthologies including Africanfuturism and was a finalist for the Caine Prize. His collection INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS is published by LunaPress.
GRAPHIC NOVEL SHORT LIST
Awele Emili
Awele Emili is a self-taught, award-winning digital artist and animator. She is a medical pharmacologist with a passion for art. Watching animated shows was one of her favourite things growing up. Those early obsessions hav influenced her work and life permanently. Her 100 page graphic novel GROWING UP AFRICAN was published this year on Amazon.
IYANU: CHILD OF WONDER VOL 2
(YouNeek Studios and Dark Horse Comics, 2021)
Roye Okupe (creator/writer), Godwin Akpan (illustrator)
Roye Okupe was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His passion for animation led him to found YouNeek Studios in 2012, an avenue that would allow him to pursue his dream of creating a diverse library of superheroes. Under that umbrella, Roye wrote, produced and directed several animated productions including, but not limited to, 2D/3D animated short films, TV commercials, show openers, music videos and much more. His comic MALIKA WARRIOR QUEEN was shortlisted for the Nommo Awards in 2019. It sold more than 40,000 copies of chapter one during Diamond Comic’s Free comic Day in 2017. His work has won several awards including a Glyph Comic Award (2017) and a Heruica Character Creation Award.
Godwin Akpan discovered the digital canvas in the early days of the computer revolution in Nigeria. Having trained as a traditional artist in college, Godwin brings his unique set of skills into creating digital masterpieces. His character design works have been featured in major digital art forums worldwide. He also lectures digital art in masterclasses with the comic panel academy.
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