109 Authors For NLNG Literature Prize

GM, External Relations, NLNG, Dr Kudo Eresia-Eke (middle); Chairman, Literature Advisory Board, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo (right); and Chairman, panel of judges for 2015 Edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature, Prof. Uwemedimo Enobong Iwoketok (left) at the presentation ceremony of the entries to the judges in Lagos… last week (Image source: The Guardian Nigeria)

No fewer than 109 writers from Nigeria and other countries have submitted entries for this year’s Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited. The focus is on Children’s Literature.

Considered Africa’s most prestigious literary award because of its uncompromising insistence on excellence and the US$100,000 cash prize, the NLNG sponsored initiative rotates yearly among four literary categories of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature, GRAPHITTI NEWS gathers.

Contestants send in their works, which are assessed by a panel of judges, comprising eminent literary scholars. The judges’ decisions and reviews are overseen by an advisory committee of equally distinguished academics and literati.

On the panel for this year’s edition  are Prof Uwemedimo Enobong Iwoketok of the University of Jos, the chairperson, Prof Charles Bodunde of the University of Ilorin, and the University of Maiduguri’s Dr. Razinat Mohammed.

Members of the Advisory Board for the Prize are Emeritus Prof Ayo Banjo, Prof Ben Elugbe and Prof Jerry Agada.

Kimberly Reynolds, a Professor of Children’s Literature at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and past President of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, is this year’s International Consultant to the Advisory Board.

Submissions are examined and shortlisted based on a number of considerations including editorial excellence, creativity and story plot with the aim of selecting a final winner who will then be publicly announced in October each year, to coincide with the date NLNG shipped its first liquefied natural gas cargo.

“We have received a hundred and nine books as submissions by Nigerian authors to compete for this year’s prize in children’s literature. I can only wish all the authors vying for the honour, every success and the best outcome possible in the exercise,” said Kudo Eresia-Eke, NLNG’s General Manager External Relations.

The last winner of the literature prize in the children’s literature category was Adeleke Adeyemi in 2011, for The Missing Clock, while Mabel Segun and Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo were joint winners for the Reader’s Theatre and My Cousin Sammyin 2007.

This year’s award for children’s literature will run concurrently with the prize for literary criticism, also sponsored by NLNG, and for which only one entry was received. Introduced in 2012, the literary criticism category is a yearly award and carries a monetary value of N1million.

Elsewhere in education, Nigeria LNG in March 2014 publicly announced a N2 billion University Support Programme (USP). Under the corporate social responsibility initiative, Nigeria LNG is currently sponsoring the building and equipment of engineering laboratories in six universities across Nigeria’s geo political zones as part of its support to teaching, research and capacity building.