Qwani and Substack Satos present

Substack
Kenya Awards2026

A celebration of the writers Kenya reads in its inbox.

Nominations are open

Nominate now
  • 14 categories
  • Free to nominate and vote
  • 14 categories
  • Free to nominate
  • Free to vote
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Essays
  • Criticism
  • Journalism
  • Kenyan writing, celebrated

Nominate your favourites

Pick a category and tell us who deserves it. It takes about a minute, and you can nominate as many as you like.

1. Pick a category

2. Make your nomination

Best New Voice

Debut writers whose newsletter launched within the past 12 months.

The publication link, an @handle, or a link to one of their posts.

Only the Qwani team sees this.

How it works

  1. 1

    Nominate

    Put forward the writers, pieces and organisations you love. Anyone can, for free.

    Happening now

  2. 2

    Vote

    We pick the nominees from your nominations, then you vote. One vote per category.

    Coming up

  3. 3

    Winners

    The nominee with the most votes in each category takes the award.

    Coming up

14 categories

From flash fiction to data journalism: everything Kenyans are publishing online.

What winners take home

A trophy is nice. A wider readership and a paid byline are better.

Publication
Winning pieces are republished in partner media outlets, at paid writer rates.
Trophy and certificate
A locally crafted trophy and an official framed certificate for every winner.
Substack acceleration package
An editorial consultation, a professionally designed newsletter header, and promotion across Qwani's channels.
Writer micro-grants
Cash prizes in selected categories, where a category sponsor funds them.

A lot of Kenya's best writing now arrives by email. Time to throw it a party.

Writers, researchers, critics and journalists across Kenya are publishing long, independent work on Substack. It is free to read and open to anyone, and it is still too often waved away as blogging.

These awards are here to change that: to celebrate online writing as literature, to reward work that is researched and polished, and to put new voices next to established ones.

Organised by Qwani through Substack Satos, our monthly gathering of readers and writers at Cheche Bookshop.

Questions

Nominations are open

Pick a category and tell us who deserves it. It takes about a minute, and you can nominate as many as you like.

Nominate nowPartner with the awards