Kenyan writer Gladwell Pamba has been shortlisted for the 2026 Caine Prize for African Writing, one of the continent’s most prestigious literary honors.
Pamba was among a select group of African authors recognized for their originality, depth and contribution to contemporary storytelling. She is shortlisted for “The Last Shop,” first published by Jahazi Press in August 2024.
The Caine Prize, often referred to as the “African Booker,” is awarded annually to the best short story by an African writer published in English.
Its first inception in 2000 was awarded to Sudanese author Leila Aboulela at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair and celebrated at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK.
Gladwell Pamba is a Montreal-based writer from Kenya, describing herself as a scholar obsessed with ordinary moments that turn out to be everything.
“My work lives in the space between memory and imagination, in the sentence people underline twice,” notes Pamba on her website.
Among the shortlisted for the 2026 Caine Prize were Melara Mvogdobo from Cameroon, Akinwande Jordan from Nigeria, Yasmine Zohdi from Egypt and Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza from Zimbabwe.
This year’s shortlist reflected the expanding diversity of Africa’s publishing landscape, spanning independent traditional publishers, literary journals and new entrants into fiction publishing.
All the five shortlisted stories will be published in the annual Caine Prize Anthology alongside work developed at this year’s Caine Prize Workshop, held in Tanzania.
Gladwell Pamba is a PhD student at Concordia University Canada, where she also earned her MA in Creative Writing. She won the Ibua Manuscript Prize in 2024 and the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Awards for Short Fiction in 2025.
Her work appears in Iskanchi Press, Bakwa, North West Review, Waxwing Journal, The Offing, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a novel and a short story collection.
Other Kenyans who have won the prize include Binyavanga Wainaina for Discovering Home 2022, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor for Weight of Whispers 2023, Idza Luhmuyo for Five Years Next Sunday 2022 and Makena Onjerika for Fanta Blackcurrant 2018.
The winner of the 2026 Caine Prize will be awarded € 10,000 at a ceremony in London on October.
