Nigeria Prize for Literature

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Nigeria Prize for Literature
Current: 2025 Nigeria Prize for Literature
2018 NLNG Prize for Literature winner Soji Cole.jpg
Soji Cole in his office with his winner's plaque, 2018
Awarded forExcellence and literary craftsmanship
Sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited
DateAnnual
CountryNigeria
Presented by Nigerian Academy of Science
Nigerian Academy of Letters
Association of Nigerian Authors
Reward US$100,000
First award2005;20 years ago (2005)
Current winner Oyin Olugbile
Website Official website

The Nigeria Prize for Literature is a literary award given annually to honour literary works of excellence by Nigerian authors. Founded in 2004, 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.

Contents

History

The prize was established in 2004 and sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company. However, the process and judging are administered by Nigerian Academy of Science with advisory board made up of members from Nigeria Academy of Letters and Association of Nigerian Authors. [1]

The Prize was initially $20,000. This was increased to $30,000 in 2006, and again to $50,000 in 2008. In 2011 the prize was increased to $100,000. [2]

Years with no winner

Since its inception, the award is normally awarded in October. However, on three occasions the panel of judges were unable to select a winner, with no prize awarded in 2004, 2009 [3] and 2015. [4] [5] In 2015, chair of the judging panel Ayo Banjo noted: "Unfortunately, the entries this year fall short of this expectation as each book was found to manifest incompetence in the use of language. Many of them showed very little or no evidence of good editing ... Hence, there will be no winner this year." [5]

See also

Notes and references

Notes

    Citations

    1. ↑ "Nigeria Prize for Literature". Nigeria LNG. 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
    2. ↑ "On the hundred thousand dollar prize". The Nigeria Prize for Literature. 26 June 2011. Archived from the original on 1 December 2011.
    3. ↑ Abdullahi, Nuruddeen M (11 October 2009). "No Winner in 2009 NLNG Prize for Literature". Daily Trust. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
    4. ↑ Osagie, Evelyn (25 September 2015). "No winner for 2015 NLNG's Literature prize". The Nation Online. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
    5. 1 2 Quadri, Zainab. "Entries assessed were all 'incompetent in the use of language". Pulse. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
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