Nigerian author Somto Ihezue has been shortlisted for the 2025 ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award for his short story “Into Duty, Into Longing, Into Sparrows”. He is the only African on the six-writer shortlist announced by the Society of Authors.
A Nigerian-Igbo writer, editor, and filmmaker whose work in speculative fiction has garnered international recognition, Somto Ihezue has been honored with the African Youth Network Movement Fiction Prize and the Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant.
His stories have appeared in esteemed publications such as Tor: Africa Risen, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and POETRY Magazine.
He has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award, the Afritondo Short Story Prize, and the Utopia Awards, and has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Nommo Awards.
Established in memory of playwright Tom Gallon, the prize is awarded to writers whose short fiction shows exceptional promise. The annual award, supported by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), honors outstanding short fiction by emerging writers. The shortlist also includes:
- Molly Aitken for “This is How it Happens”
- Naomi Alderman for “God’s Doorbell”
- Daisy Fletcher for “The Triangle”
- Hamish Gray for “But the Fire Will Spit Again”
- Katie Hale for Raise, or “How to Break Free of the Ground”
The winner will be announced on June 18 at Southwark Cathedral.
Congratulations, Somto Ihezue!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
