Ubwali Literary Magazine, in partnership with Shenandoah, has revealed the shortlist for the 2025 Ubwali Hope Prize.
The shortlist celebrates six outstanding Zambian writers whose work reflects creativity, resilience, and the richness of African storytelling across poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Hope Prize Shortlist:
1. Dacious Kasoka:
Poet, economist, and machine learning engineer based in Lusaka. A 2023 Best of the Net nominee, Kasoka’s work appears in World Voices Magazine, Kalahari Review, Spillwords Press, OBBLT Review, and more.
Read Dacious’s shortlisted poem here.
2. Isaac Kanyinji:
Zambian poet and short story writer published in Publishd Afrika, Poemify, and Salamander Ink Mag.
Read Isaac’s shortlisted poem here.
3. Mwanabibi Sikamo:
Zambian storyteller and award-winning filmmaker. She writes about the lived African experience and the confluence between culture, creativity and indigenous spirituality. Her essays play with form and function and have appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Weganda Review, Ubwali Literary Magazine, Brink, and elsewhere.
A Pushcart-nominated essayist, she was a finalist for the Sevhage Literary Prize for Creative Non-Fiction (2023) and the Porter House Review Editors Prize for Nonfiction (2025).
Read Mwanabibi’s shortlisted essay here.
4. Mwila Agatha Zaza:
A Zambian-Finnish author and development professional currently living in Helsinki, Finland. Her debut novel, The Pretenders, was born in Singapore, where she spent three years as a trailing spouse and rekindled a long-dormant love of writing. Her latest novel is set in Helsinki. Mwila Agatha has spent most of her career in fundraising and communications in the international development sector. She has lived and worked in Ireland, the former Soviet Union and New Zealand. She holds a Master’s in Equality Studies from University College Dublin.
Her writing has appeared in The Johannesburg Review of Books and Ubwali Literary Magazine. When she’s not talking to her plants, she’s exploring Helsinki’s libraries and galleries and trying not to step on the Lego that lives on her living room rug.
Read Mwila’s shortlisted story here.
5. Mwinji Siame:
A culture and arts writer who also enjoys writing fiction. Her work has appeared in the Bosphorus Review, Art Düsseldorf, the Feminist Food Journal, and the Republic, amongst other places. She is also an aspiring visual artist.
Read Mwinji’s shortlisted story here.
6. Suwilanji Namusamba:
Poet, lawyer, and mental health advocate. Winner of the 2001 ANTOA Writing Contest and published in Bold Ambition’s Lover’s Rock Anthology. She is a partner at her firm and holds degrees from the University of Zambia and University of Leicester.
Read Suwilanji’s shortlisted essay here.
The Ubwali Hope Prize is an annual literary award that recognizes emerging and established African writers whose work speaks to hope, identity, and the human experience. The prize is presented in partnership with Shenandoah, the literary journal of Washington and Lee University.
Congratulations to all shortlisted writers!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
