The 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature initially had 287 poets compete for the $100,000 Prize.
On Friday, the chair of the Advisory Board of the NLNG $100,000 literature prize, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, announced the shortlisted poets whose books made the final cut for the coveted award.
The shortlisted books for the 2022 edition of the literature prize are ‘Memory and the Call of Water’ by Su’eddie Vershima Agema, ‘Nomad’ by Romeo Oriogun and ‘Your Crib, My Qibla’ by Saddiq Dzukogi.
The finalists were selected out of a longlist of 11 announced recently by the board.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG to promote and reward excellence in writing, rotates yearly amongst four literary categories of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature.
The 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature initially had 287 poets compete for the $100,000 Prize.
The judges will announce the winner and outcome of the 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism on October 14.
Author and professor of Law at Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, won the 2021 prize with her novel, Son of the House.
Judges
Sule Egya leads the panel of judges. A professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Mr Egya is a renowned poet and novelist who writes under the pen name E. E. Sule.
He has written over 100 scholarly articles and literary essays. His first novel, Sterile Sky, won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for the Africa Region. His poetry volumes include What the Sea Told Me, which won the 2009 ANA/Gabriel Okara Prize.
Other judges are Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije. Adewale-Gabriel is a poet and narrator. She has worked as a literary critic in The Guardian, Post Express and The Daily Times. She is often described as “the most beautiful and outstanding voice of the new African poetry.” Dike Chukwumerije is a Nigerian Spoken Word and Performance Poetry artist and an award-winning author.
He has published several books and is the brain behind Night of the Spoken Word, a live poetry show and a theatre production, Made in Nigeria Poetry Show. He also won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction.
Other members of the Advisory Board are two professors, Olu Obafemi and Ahmed Yerima.
