The Awele Creative Trust announced Olayinka Yaqub as the winner of the 2023 ACT Award for his short story, The Weight of Duty.
The judges praised Yaqub’s story for its heart, language use, and rich cultural setting, noting that “Wura’s struggle to reconcile her personal desires with her duty is very well told.”
Yaqub’s story was selected from among five shortlisted stories announced in March 2024.
The Awele Creative Trust (ACT) is a non-profit trust established in 2013 to provide a platform and enabling environment for creative young individuals in Nigeria through literature and arts. In celebration of the trust’s ten-year anniversary, Yaqub will receive N100,000.
Congratulations to Olayinka Yaqub, as well as the shortlisted and longlisted candidates!
For more information about the ACT Award, visit their website at www.awelecreativetrust.com.
Bongiwe T. Maphosa
Bongiwe Maphosa is a writer whose fiction and poetry offers fresh, imaginative perspectives on the human condition. Her work has been published in prominent literary spaces, including Isele Magazine, Akowdee Magazine, the AVBOB Poetry Anthology, Journal of African Youth in Literature (JAY Lit), and more. She was also nominated for the 2025 Best of the Net Anthology. Bongiwe is one of six writers selected for the inaugural Caine Prize Online Editing program and serves as a content writer, peer reviewer, and tier three awards judge for JAYLit. Bridging inner reflection with speculative worlds, she continues to carve out a distinctive voice within contemporary African literature for a growing global audience.
