Ubwali Literary Magazine has announced the 2026 Ubwali Hope Prize Shortlist.
In partnership with Shenandoah, the Ubwali Hope Prize celebrates the best of Zambian prose and poetry. One winner is selected each year, receives an honorarium of $500, and is featured in the fall issue of Shenandoah.
This year’s winner will also be featured in the Journal of African Youth and Literature and will receive a year-long virtual mentorship with Ubwali editor-in-chief, Mubanga Kalimamukwento. A runner-up will be selected in each genre to receive a six-month virtual mentorship from Sihle Ntuli (POETRY), Gloria Mwaniga Odary (CREATIVE NONFICTION), and Natasha Omokhodion (FICTION).
The shortlisted authors are:
- BWALYA S. KONDWANI for MwaiseniKTK (POETRY), published in Issue 5:
Bwalya S. Kondwani is a Zambian writer, spoken word poet, and medical student at the University of Lusaka. He won the 2023 Myaambo Short Story Prize for Mzimu Wachikondi, later featured in an anthology of the same name, and the 2025 Stanley Umezulike Prize for African Thriller. He was also placed third in the 2025 Wakini Kuria Prize for Children’s Literature at the African Writers Awards. His work has appeared in several anthologies and literary magazines, including Ubwali Literary Magazine, Asterlit, Writers Space Africa, Sotrane Publishers, and MUD Journal. Beyond the page, Bwalya works with The Expression Lab, helping facilitate creative writing and spoken word workshops for students across Zambia. His work often explores human vulnerability, memory, and the emotional weight of lived experience.
- HENRY JOE SAKALA, for The Promise (FICTION), published in Issue 5:
Henry is an author, screenwriter, playwright, actor, and film and theatre director with over 20 years in Zambia’s creative industry. His screenwriting credits appear on Muvi TV, Zambezi Magic, and ZNBC, including contributions to Survivors, Brothers, Dancers, and When the Curtain Falls, ZedMan, Mfuti, Mpali, Kopala, and Landlady, Makofi, Zuba, Butuku, and Tikula, Zambia’s only teen drama series. His stage credits appear in Living with the Enemy, The Last Steps, A Judas Affair, Town Boy, Surviving the Wilderness, Without a Kiss, and Love Song for an Impotent Son-in-Law. Sakala won the Best Script at the 2014 April International Theatre Festival, was runner-up at the 2016 Zambian Writers Short Story Competition, was a 2022 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award nominee, and a winner of the Best Director in Theatre 2025 Ngoma Awards. He is also the author of Kalulu and the Skin Trick, The Last Steps, Unmasked: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems, and Komboni Private Investigator, and his short fiction was published in the Alone Anthology and the Sister Wives Anthology. Henry is the co-founder of the Myaambo Publishing House.
- LUCAS LUNGU, for Ceremony of Bodies (POETRY), published in Issue 5:
Lucas is a Zambian poet, published author, biomedical scientist, and researcher. He is the author of Prayers End Here, a poetry collection, and a 2026 Pushcart Prize nominee. His work has appeared in Ubwali Literary Magazine, Usawa Literary Review, and many other literary spaces.
- MUSONDA MUKUKA for Tethered (CREATIVE NONFICTION), published in Issue 6:
Musonda is a Zambian journalist and emerging creative writer whose poetry and short stories have appeared in Ubwali Literary Magazine. She contributed to the Lover’s Rock anthology published by Bold Ambition Books, and one of her short stories is forthcoming in Copper Monstera’s The Boy in the Red Car and Other Stories. She took part in the inaugural Ubwali Masterclass and is a 2025 Modzi Arts artist-in-residence. In addition to her creative writing, she has contributed numerous articles to Nkwazi Magazine and other platforms. She was selected as a screenwriter for the 2026 Zambian Women in Film and Television Short Film Festival Lab.
- MUTINTA NANCHENGWA for Relearning my Identity (CREATIVE NONFICTION), published in Issue 5:
Mutinta is a writer from Lusaka with a keen eye for human interest stories. She was shortlisted for the inaugural Kalemba Short Story Prize and nominated for the 2026 Pushcart Prize. Transitioning from feature writing to digital communications, Mutinta now crafts fiction that explores the human heart. She is passionate about digital rights and human rights, and often weaves storytelling into her advocacy work. Whether through journalism or prose, her goal remains the same: to tell stories that matter and explore how we relate to one another.
- NATASHA N. MUKAMBA for Solace (FICTION), published in the 2nd Ubwali Masterclass Anthology Issue:
Natasha is a Zambian writer and storyteller. Her work explores love, the complexities of family, and the emotional landscapes of African womanhood. She is the author of Bits and Pieces, a 2025 COPPA Book Award–nominated nonfiction book for young women, for which she was a runner-up. Natasha’s fiction and essays appear in Ponmo is a Bird That Has No Place in a Cultured Culinary Sky and Other Stories (Noisy Streets), Alone and Other Short Stories, the Sister Wives Anthology (Myaambo), and WOMEN’S WORDS: Experiences and Realities (The African Dialogue). She has been featured on The Girl Table’s GT Story Project, Stripes Literary Magazine, and other platforms. In 2025, Natasha received the Frances Ogamba Scholarship Award for African Writers from Ubwali Literary Magazine. She was honoured with the Creative Woman Award in Literary Arts at the HER Night Awards in Lusaka.
The winner of the 2026 Ubwali Hope Prize and the genre runners-up will be announced at a later date.
Congratulations to all shortlisted writers!
