Congratulations to Shani Akilah, whose story ‘A Short Trip to Tesco’ has been longlisted for the Writers’ & Artists’ Short Story Competition 2023.
Shani’s story was one of sixteen selected from over 850 entries to this year’s competition, themed around ‘Writing Love’. The announcement of the shortlist and winner, picked by writer Naomi Booth (EXIT MANAGEMENT, SEALED), will be made on the Writers’ & Artists’ website by the end of April. The winner will receive a place on an Arvon Foundation Writing Retreat.
‘A Short Trip to Tesco’ will appear in Shani’s upcoming debut short story collection.
Picture: Jonathan Osibo
About Shani Akilah
Shani Akilah is a 28 year-old Black-British writer from South London of Caribbean heritage (Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica). She is an avid reader and book blogger and was spotlighted as a ‘Key Black Influencer’ by DoubleDay Books.
Shani is passionate about community and bringing people together and is the co-founder of Nyah Network, a book club for black women and is also the founder of contributor based platform, Bankra, that explored the navigated identities of black millennials.
Shani loves travelling, and has spent significant time in Ghana as part of her studies. Shani has a Masters degree in African Studies from Oxford University with research exploring counter-diasporic return and issues of home and belonging amongst second-generation British-Ghanaians.