ImageNations

October has seen the announcement of several literature awards: from Nigeria's US$ 100,000 NLNG Prize, to the Pounds 50,000 Man Booker Prize. Overall, 2013 is the year for women writing, both young and old. NLNG Prize for Literature, Nigeria:  An Ibandan, Oyo State-based Lawyer and Poet, Tade Ipadeola, was announced the winner of the the 2013 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Ipadeola, president of PEN Nigeria, won the US$100,000 prize with poetry anthology The Sahara Testaments. The prize is sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited.  The Sahara Testaments  won the prize ahead of Promise Ogochukwu's Wild Letters  and Chidi Amu's Through the Window of a Sandcastle.  The three entries were shortlisted from 201 entries received for the prize. The judges described  The Sahara Testaments as a remarkable epic covering the terrain and peopel of Africa from the very dawn of creation, through the present, to the future. The text uses Sahara as a metonym for the pro...

The Advisory Board of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, sponsor of the Nigeria Prize Literature, on Monday announced a shortlist of 11 books out of 201 books submitted for the 2013 edition of the prize. This year, the biggest literary prize on the continent, will focus on poetry. The list was arrived after after months of intensive scrutiny by a panel of judges led by renowned poet and literary critic Prof. Romanus Egudu of Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. The shortlisted books are: Letter Home and Biafran Nights by Akeh Afam Symphony of Becoming by Eke Iquo Birthcry by Nwakanma Obi Wild Letters by Ogochukwu Promise Globetrotter and Hitler's Children by Ede Amatoritsero Marsh Boy and Other Poems by Egbewo G'ebinyo Length of Eyes by Gomba Obari The Sahara Testaments by Ipadeola Tade Seven Stations up the Stairwel by Launko Kinba (pen name for Femi Osofisan) Through the Window of a Sandcastle by Nnadi Amu Sea of My Mind by Raji Remi The winner of the US$ ...

On November 1, 2012, Chika Ungiwe's On Black Sisters' Street  has won the NLNG awards. Unigwe's book was shortlisted alongside ten other books including such heavyweights as Jude Dibia's Blackbird , Adaobi Tricia's I do not Come to you by Chance  and Lola Shoneyin 's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives.  The award, the largest in monetary terms, comes with a US$ 100,000. The NLNG rotates yearly among four literary genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature. Last year, Adeleke Adeyemi, writing as Mai Nasara , won the story for his work Missing Clock (children's literature).  The Chairman of the Advisory Board said the book 'is a work of outstanding merit'. According to the Chair of Judges 'what is striking about Chika Unigwe's novel is the compassion that informs it.'  On Black Sisters Street tells a gripping story of the lives of four African migrants working the Red Light District of Antwerp in B...

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: Ngozi Achebe Onaedo :  The Blacksmith's Daughter Ifeanyi Ajaegbo: Sarah House Jude Dibia: Blackbird Vincent Egbuson: Zhero Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: I do not Come to You by Chance Onuora Nzekwu: Troubled Dust Olusola Olugbesan: Only Canvas Lola Shoneyin : The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives E E Sule: Sterile Sky Chika Unigwe: On Black Sister's Street The Advisory Board announced that the final shortlist will be released soon. The Nigeria Prize for Literature r...

On October 10, 2011 at the Eko Hotels, an almost unknown writer, hiding under the pseudonym Mai Nasara, won the most prestigious award in Nigeria's literary calendar with his book The Missing Clock . In fact, the money attached to this award is better than most of the awards the literary world has to offer. At US$ 100,000 this prize is comparable to the Man Booker which offers the winner an astounding 50,000 Pounds; however, whereas the Booker is opened to all writers in the Commonwealth who have published a book in the awarding-year, the NLNG is awarded to a Nigerian author who has published a literary book that happen to fall within the category that the award will be going to for that year. Sounds complicated? I guess not. The award rotates amongst four literary groupings: Children Fiction (which was the awarding category in 2011), Poetry, Poetry and Drama. From a list of 126 entries, a long shortlist comprising six authors were selected. This was further shortened to th...

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011 shortlist was announced on Tuesday September 6, 2011. From a longlist of 13 books comes a shortlist of 6. Jualian Barnes The Sense of Ending  (Jonathan Cape) Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie  (Canongate) Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta Books) Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues  (Serpent's Tail) Stephen Kelman Pigeon English  (Bloomsbury) A.D. Miller Snowdrops  (Atlantic Books) This list contains 2 first time novelists: Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller and two have had success with the prize in the past: Julian Barnes and Carol Birch. Four of the books are from independent publishers, two are Canadian writers and four are British. ImageNations interest is in Esi Edugyan who, though a Canadian, was born to Ghanaian emigrants. Then there is also the Ghanaian connection, in terms of the protagonist, in Kelman's Pigeon English. My friend Geosi has suggested that after reading all the reviews, he tips Esi to win...

In 2009 there was a no-show for the NLNG shortlisted authors . In that year, the award was to go for a poet and even though there was a shortlist of authors, none of them was deemed good enough to win the award, according to the Advisory Board. On Friday July 22, 2011, the Advisory Board for The Nigerian Prize for Literature approved an initial shortlist of six out of the 126 books for the 2011 edition of the NLNG prize. Making up the shortlist are: Uche Peter Umez winner of the 2006 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and runner-up for the 2007 The Nigeria Prize for Literature with his book The Runaway Hero ; Philip Begho, author of over 70 books and two-time contender for The Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2004 and 2010 with his Aunty Felicia Goes to School ; Ayodele Olofintuande with Eno's Story ; Chinyere Obi-Obasi with The Great Fall ; Mai Nasara with The Missing Clock ; and Thelma Nwokeji with her debut Red Nest. The children’s literature prize do...

THE YEAR OF LITERARY WOMEN WITH INITIALS H.M. Over the week, two prestigious literary awards were announced, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize, and both were won by women whose initials were coincidentally identical. The Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Herta Muller , a German Romanian. Her choice has caused a stir in the literary circles as people are perceiving the awards to be too Eurocentric judging from the fact that the last time an American won it was in 1993 and Asians hardly ever win. On the other Hilary Mantel  has won the Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall, which had J.M. Coetzee's Summertime in the shortlist. This award has been accepted by all and none has as yet complained. You can read also read about these at here and there ... THE SHOCKER AWARDS Whilst I have consistently insisted on the abundance of literary talents in Nigeria, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Awards for Literature held this Saturday October 10, 2009, saw ...