Shortlist of 10 for the Nigeria Prize (NLNG) for Literature 2012

The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature led by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo has announced an initial shortlist of 10 books in the running for the 2012 literature prize. According to the Chair of Judges, Prof. Francis Abiola Irele, it took months of intensive scrutiny by the panel to produce the shortlist drawn from 214 entries from Nigerians at home and abroad; this happens to be the largest number received since the prize was inaugurated in 2004. The following are the shortlisted books:
  1. Ngozi Achebe Onaedo: The Blacksmith's Daughter
  2. Ifeanyi Ajaegbo: Sarah House
  3. Jude Dibia: Blackbird
  4. Vincent Egbuson: Zhero
  5. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: I do not Come to You by Chance
  6. Onuora Nzekwu: Troubled Dust
  7. Olusola Olugbesan: Only Canvas
  8. Lola Shoneyin: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
  9. E E Sule: Sterile Sky
  10. Chika Unigwe: On Black Sister's Street
The Advisory Board announced that the final shortlist will be released soon. The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst four literary genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature. Last year it was won by Mai Nasara (a pseudonym) for Missing Clock (children's literature). The award comes with a cash prize of US$ 100,000.

From all indications, this year's award is going to be keenly competed. Most of the books have received some form of awards and have been hugely patronised and well-reviewed/received. From Chika Unigwei's On Black Sister's Street, through to Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, Adaobi's I do not Come to You by Chance, Jude Dibia's Blackbird, and Ngozi Achebe's The Blacksmith's Daughter, the judges are going to find a hard time shortening the list further down and then choosing the winner.

Comments

  1. Reading Pleasure7 September 2012 at 15:02

    You've said it Nana; it's going to be a keen race. I read the Secret LIves of Baba Segi's Wives and it is good, though I felt that Bolanle was not a well developed character and in the end, issues were not resolved properly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations19 September 2012 at 09:25

      I think Kinna said something of some sort too. Let's see because the list contains some very good names.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Help Improve the Blog with a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10. Unexpected Joy at Dawn: My Reading

Image
Title: Unexpected Joy At Dawn Author: Alex Agyei-Agyiri Genre: Novel Publisher: Sub-Saharan Publishers Pages: 331 Year: 2004 Country: Ghana Unexpected Joy at Dawn is a story of two siblings, Nii and Mama Orojo, during the 1983 deportation of Ghanaians from Nigeria under the Shehu Shagari government. Nii, who is a Nigerian by blood but a Ghanaian by birth, was left in Ghana by his parents as they made the tortuous journey to Nigeria when Ghana enacted the Aliens Compliance Order of 1969, which made every person living in Ghana without the required papers an alien. His name was changed to reflect the name of his adopted parents. After fourteen years of living in hardship in Ghana, which involves living in slums even though he was an Assistant Manager at a bank, taking on multiple jobs, not being able to bury a wife and being chased around by market women for purported 'fraud', he decided to go to Nigeria in search of his roots. Besides, he entertained the fears of being...
Read more

69. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye, A Review

Image
Title: The Clothes of Nakedness Author: Benjamin Kwakye Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series Genre: Fiction/Novel/Class Pages: 212 Year of First Publication: 1998 Country: Ghana For the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge Benjamin Kwakye 's novel The Clothes of Nakedness  is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind. The story revolves around thr...
Read more

42. The Blinkards by Kobina Sekyi

Image
Title: The Blinkards, A Comedy and The Anglo-Fanti - A Short Story Author: Kobina Sekyi Genre: Play/Short Story Pages: 256 Publishers: Heinemann/Readwide ISBN: 978-0-435-92784-4 Year of Publication: 1974 (this edition, 1997) Country: Gold Coast (Now Ghana) Setting:  This book contains two stories: The Blinkards - a play and The Anglo-Fanti - a short story . Though the stories are from two different genres, one theme threads through them: the effect of absolute cultural osmosis or better still the consequences of swallowing an alien culture without much scrutiny, as happened in occupied countries popularly referred to by the occupiers as colonies (colonies of what? Ants? Bees?) Both stories took place in Cape Coast and the setting is very significant to the story. Apart from the author being a Fanti from Cape Coast, Cape Coast was the first point of introduction to colonial rule. As a seaport city, it was the first town that was brought under colonial rule; hence ...
Read more