No less than 173 entries have been submitted to the Nigeria Prize for Literature sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).
The prize focuses on children’s literature in 2019. The number of entries this year show a 59 per cent increase as compared to number of entries received in 2015 when the genre was last up for competition.
The company also received 10 entries for Literary Criticism Prize. The literature prize, which is now in its 15th year, has a cash prize of $100, 000 while the Literary Criticism Prize has a prize money of N1 million.
The number of entries was announced on Thursday in Lagos during the handover of entries to the Advisory Board of the prize, signifying the beginning of the judging process which will culminate in the announcement of the winner.
While handing over the entries to the Advisory Board chaired by Prof. Emeritus Ayo Banjo, NLNG’s Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Andy Odeh said: “As we deliver these 173 books for your vetting, we eagerly look forward to the discovery of yet another literary gem that will open up possibilities for millions of children not only in Nigeria, but all over the Africa.
“We can confidently say that the Nigeria Prize for Literature has brought some previously unknown Nigerian writers to public attention. Our generation and those after us are becoming familiar with not just legends like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara, Elechi Amadi, and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Mabel Segun and other writers of longstanding acclaim that, perhaps, some of us had the opportunity of reading as children, but also a new cadre of writers like Kaine Agary, Adeleke Adeyemi, Tade Ipadeola, Ikeogu Oke, Soji Cole and others.”
The entries, which came in response to a call for entries published in the national media in February 2018, will be examined on their merits of excellence in language, creativity and book quality.
The panel of judges led by Prof. Obododinma Oha received the entries.
Winners of the Literature and Literary Criticism prizes will be announced at an award ceremony in October 2019, to commemorate the anniversary of the first LNG export from the NLNG plant on October 9, 1999.
