Three writers were announced Friday as finalists for the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature with a cash award of $100,000 and sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG)
The Advisory Board, led by Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, announced the trio in a live broadcast on the Prize’s social media channels.
They are Su’eddie Vershima Agema for ‘Memory and the Call of Water’ Romeo Oriogun for ‘Nomad’, and Saddiq Dzukogi for ‘Your Crib, My Qibla’
The three collections of poetry were selected from a longlist of 11 announced recently by the Board. 287 books were entered for the competition, which is focused on poetry.
The Board explained that “Memory and the Call of Water is a collection that consistently uses memory to reflect on life and destiny through the metaphor of water. Nomad has a fresh language and a nostalgic engagement with the themes of exile and displacement, while Your Crib, My Qibla translates tragedy into lyrical poetry with pathos and effortless imagery.”
The judges, Professor Emanuel Egya Sule and poets Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije, will choose the winner, who will be announced by the Advisory Board on October 14.
The Board will also announce the verdict on the 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism.
The Advisory Board also announced the appointment of Professor Susan Nalugwa Kiguli as the International Consultant for this year’s Prize on Friday.
Kiguli is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar. She is an associate professor of literature at Makerere University. Professor Kiguli has served as a judge for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (African Region, 1999) and an advisory board member for the African Writers Trust.
As a poet, her 1998 collection The African Saga won the National Book Trust of Uganda Poetry Award (1999) and made literary history in the country by selling out in less than a year.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature.
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.’