Chairperson, advisory board, NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature Prof Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo has said that the board and judges for the prize are reputable academics who are carefully selected.
Speaking with Qed.ng on Wednesday in Lagos, Adimora-Ezeigbo praised the NLNG for birthing the annual literature and science prizes which have become globally acclaimed.
She said, “I was thinking of this prize NLNG set up as a prize we can truly call our own. It’s a Nigerian prize and we can be very proud of it and if you look at people who have won it over the years they are all very good writers.”
On her expectations for this year’s entries with focus on drama, Adimora-Ezeigbo said, “We’re expecting to receive entries from as many people as possible. We want our people, Nigerians in Nigeria and in the diaspora to submit their works written between 2020 and 2023 for this year’s cycle of the award.
“We have a panel of judges. There are four judges – three local judges from Nigeria and one international consultant from Ghana. These are all professors and we expect them to adjudicate this year’s drama prize. They have been appointed and immediately the entries close they will begin their work.
“We selected people who are conversant with the genre drama and they were very carefully selected. They are people who are professionals, academics, and theorists. They are very well verse in every aspect of drama. Some of them are actors, they have written plays themselves and are critics. So they are highly qualified.”
Sharing memories from 2007 when she jointly won the award for children’s literature with acclaimed writer Mabel Segun, the chairperson of the advisory board said, “It was a very happy moment for me because I saw it as a way of validating the work I have done in children’s literature and also motivated me to write more. Sharing the prize with such a well-known writer was good for me.”
Entries for the 2023 literature prize will close on March 31, 2023.
