2024 Nigeria Prize for Literature

Last updated

The 2024 Nigeria Prize for Literature is a national literary prize sponsored by the Nigeria LNG that will be awarded in October 2024.

Contents

Background

The Nigeria Prize for Literature was established in 2004 and is worth USD100,000 in Prize money. The Prize is considered by literary critics as the biggest and most prestigious in Africa and has been commended for helping discover literary talent [1] although some emphasize that more needs to be done to help the African writer [2] . The Prize is in its 20th year, and has so far recorded 1851 entries in 16 competitions, producing 12 winning works [3] [4] . The Award is independently administered by the Nigerian Academy of Science with an Advisory Board made up of members from the Nigeria Academy of Letters and the Association of Nigerian Authors. [5] [6]

The Prize in 2024 received 163 entries of children novels with 11 entries selected to the Long-list. The prizes will be announced and awarded in October 2024. [5]

Judging panel

The 2024 Panel of Judges comprises the following: [7]

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board with Olu Obafemi and Ahmed Yerima as members of the Advisory Board while Christopher Okemwa, Professor of Poetry and Drama at Kisii University serves as the International Consultant. [7] [9]

Nominations

Source: [5]

Longlist
AuthorTitle
Ndidi Chiazor-EnenmoA Father's Pride
Akanni Festus OlaniyiBode's Birthday Party
Jumoke Verissimo Grandma and the Moon's Hidden Secret
Henry Akubuiro Mighty Mite and Golden Jewel
Temiloluwa AdeshinaRisi Recycle–The Dustbin Girl
Olatunbosun TaofeekThe Children at the IDP Camp
Ayo Adeliyi OyekuThe Magic Jalabiya
Familoni Oluranti OlubunmiThe Road Does Not End
Hyginus EkwuaziThe Third Side of a Coin
Anietie UsenVillage Boy
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike Wish Maker

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o</span> Kenyan writer (born 1938)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as "East Africa's leading novelist". He began writing in English, switching to write primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright has been translated into 100 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Booker Prize</span> International literary award

The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Booker Prize was then known, was announced in June 2004. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage", and was a recognition of the writer's body of work rather than any one title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chika Unigwe</span> Nigerian-born Igbo author (born 1974)

Chika Nina Unigwe is a Nigerian-born Igbo author who writes in English and Dutch. In April 2014, she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Previously based in Belgium, she now lives in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helon Habila</span> Nigerian novelist and poet (born 1967)

Helon Habila Ngalabak is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a Chevening Scholar at the University of East Anglia, and now teaches creative writing at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Prize for Arabic Fiction</span> Award

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world.

Edgar Calabia Samar is a poet and novelist from San Pablo City, Philippines. He has received the Philippine National Book Awards for his novels and book of criticism, and the Palanca Awards for his poetry collections and short fiction. His novels Sa Kasunod ng 909, Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon and Si Janus Silang at ang Labanang Manananggal-Mambabarang all won the Philippine National Book Awards for Best Novel in a Philippine Language in 2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively. He has been awarded the PBBY-Salanga Writer's Prize, the NCCA Writer's Prize for the Novel, the Gantimpalang Collantes sa Sanaysay and the Gawad Surian sa Tula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernardine Evaristo</span> British author and academic (born 1959)

Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo is a British author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to hold the role since it was founded in 1820.

Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, also known as Uche Peter Umez, is a Nigerian author and academic currently working as an assistant professor of English at the University of Calgary. In addition to publishing several works of children’s fiction, short fiction, and poetry, his academic research draws from gender studies and critical race theory to analyze African, African diaspora, postcolonial, and global literatures as well as film.

Jumoke Verissimo is a Nigerian poet, novelist, children's writer and critic.

Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa is a pan-African writing prize awarded biennially to the best literary work produced by an African. It was established by the Lumina Foundation in 2005 in honour of Africa's first Nobel Laureate in Literature, Wole Soyinka, who presents the prize, which is chosen by an international jury of literary figures. Administered by the Lumina Foundation, the prize has been described as "the African equivalent of the Nobel Prize".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">9mobile Prize for Literature</span> Award

The 9mobile Prize for Literature was created by Etisalat Nigeria in 2013, and is the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published fiction books. Awarded annually, the prize aims to serve as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and invariably promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa. The winner receives a cash prize of £15,000 in addition to a fellowship at the University of East Anglia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellah Wakatama Allfrey</span> Zimbabwean editor and literary critic (born 1966)

Ellah Wakatama, OBE, Hon. FRSL, is the Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, a senior Research Fellow at Manchester University, and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She was the founding Publishing Director of the Indigo Press. A London-based editor and critic, she was on the judging panel of the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award and the 2015 Man Booker Prize. In 2016, she was a Visiting Professor & Global Intercultural Scholar at Goshen College, Indiana, and was the Guest Master for the 2016 Gabriel Garcia Marquez Foundation international journalism fellowship in Cartagena, Colombia. The former deputy editor of Granta magazine, she was the senior editor at Jonathan Cape, Random House and an assistant editor at Penguin. She is the series editor of the Kwani? Manuscript Project and the editor of the anthologies Africa39 and Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kola Tubosun</span> Nigerian linguist and writer (born 1981)

Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún is a Nigerian linguist, writer, translator, scholar, cultural activist and film-maker. His work and influence span the fields of education, language technology, literature, journalism, and linguistics. He is the recipient of the 2016 Premio Ostana "Special Prize" for Writings in the Mother Tongue for his work in language advocacy. He writes in Yoruba and English, and is currently the Africa editor of the Best Literary Translations anthology, published by Deep Vellum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayobami Adebayo</span> Nigerian writer (born 1988)

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is a Nigerian writer. Her 2017 debut novel, Stay With Me, won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and the Prix Les Afriques. She was awarded The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture in 2017.

Yewande Omotoso is a South African-based novelist, architect and designer, who was born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria. She currently lives in Johannesburg. Her two published novels have earned her considerable attention, including winning the South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author, being shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the M-Net Literary Awards 2012, and the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature, and being longlisted for the 2017 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction. She is the daughter of Nigerian writer Kole Omotoso, and the sister of filmmaker Akin Omotoso.

Su'ur Su'eddie Vershima Agema is a Nigerian poet, editor and literary administrator. He is also a culture promoter. Author of two poetry collections, Bring our Casket Home: Tales one Shouldn’t Tell, and Home Equals Holes: Tale of an Exile, a short story collection, The Bottom of Another Tale and the NLNG Nigeria prize for literature 2022 nominated shortlisted book - Memory and the Call of Water. Agema is a past Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) as well as Council Member, National Teen Authorship Scheme.

Ogaga Ifowodo is a Nigerian lawyer, scholar, poet, columnist/public commentator and human rights activist. He was awarded the 1998 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, given to writers "anywhere in the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigeria Prize for Literature</span> Nigerias literary award

Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature, repeating the cycle every four years. With the total prize value of US$100,000 to individual winner, it is the biggest literary award in Africa and one of the richest literary awards in the world.

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is a Nigerian author and educator, whose published work includes novels, poetry, short stories, books for children, essays and journalism. She is the winner of several awards in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Prize for Literature.

References

  1. Diala, I (2020). "The Nigeria Prize for Literature and Current Nigerian Writing: Politics, Process, and Price of Literary Legitimation". Research in African Literatures. 51 (4): 36–65 via muse.jhu.edu.
  2. "The Trouble with the Nigeria Prize for Literature". africasacountry.com. 2024-08-12. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  3. Braide, Damiete (July 13, 2024). "Two decades of literary excellence: The Nigeria Prize for Literature and its impact on Nigerian writers". thesun.ng.
  4. Oscar, Victor (April 19, 2024). "Nigeria Prize For Literature Receives 163 Entries In Children's Literature Series". radionigerialagos.gov.ng.
  5. 1 2 3 Nwogu, Franca (29 July 2024). "Nigeria Prize for Literature Releases 2024 Longlist". The Board. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  6. Sam-Duru, Prisca (23 April 2024). "Nigeria Prize for Literature: Celebrating 20 years of excellence". Vanguard. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  7. 1 2 Emelike, Obinna (18 April 2024). "Interest in literature soars with 163 entries for Nigeria Prize for Literature 2024". Business Day.
  8. Murua, James (2024-07-15). "NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature 2024 longlist announced" . Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  9. Ghosh, Kuhelika (19 February 2024). "Submit Children's Books to the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature 2024 | Deadline: April 2". Brittle Paper . Retrieved 2 August 2024.