The Golden Baobab Prizes for African children’s literature has ended the call for submissions to its 5th annual edition of the prizes.

This year, Golden Baobab introduced three prizes: The Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books, The Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books and the Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers, with a new emphasis on imaginative and enthralling content.

This year’s prizes received a total of 180 stories from thirteen African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia and Sierra Leone. Nigeria and Tanzania produced the most entrants.

This year’s entries bring the total number of entries submitted to the Golden Baobab Prize over the past 5 years to over 1,000 stories.

Having established itself as a prestigious platform for discovering African writers of African children’s stories, Golden Baobab is set to begin a massive appeal for corporate sponsorships that will help to increase its reach and unearth more talent.

According to the Executive Director of the organization, Deborah Ahenkorah, “Golden Baobab is looking for bold, visionary corporate partners who want to create for African children, a colorful world filled with fantasy, adventure and imagination! African children deserve to grow up surrounded by stories that reflect their cultures and experiences.

We are looking for partners who believe that this is possible.” This partnership will enable Golden Baobab bring its top stories to life as print and digital books, films, apps, games and merchandise for children.

The Golden Baobab Prizes’ evaluation process has begun and a shortlist will be announced in September 2013.

The winners of the Golden Baobab Prizes will be named in the second week of November and will receive $1,000 (USD), the opportunity to publish with and receive royalties from Golden Baobab top tier African and international publishers, the benefit of increased publicity that comes with being named a Golden Baobab winner, and opportunities to attend exclusive Golden Baobab workshops.

In addition to the above, the winner of the Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers will serve on the prestigious panel of judges for the 2014 Golden Baobab Prizes, bringing a critical young perspective to the evaluation process.