Joshua Chizoma was announced the winner of the Awele Creative Trust Award 2020 on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.
Awele Creative Trust is a non-profit organisation created to provide an enabling environment and platform for creative young persons founded by Chika Unigwe. Its annual prize the Awele Creative Trust Award, valued at ₦50,000, rewards a short story of up to 5,000 words by a Nigerian writer aged between 16 and 26. Previous winners include Caleb Adebayo for 2014, Nneoma Ike Njoku for 2015, Caleb Somtochukwu Okereke and Anthony Ezekwoh for 2016, Imade Iyamu for 2017, and Bakporhe Ufuomaoghene for 2019.
The shortlist for 2020 was announced on March 15 with five writers in the running. The winner, revealed on Wednesday, is Joshua Chizoma for his short story Their Boy.
The judges said of his story: “Chizoma’s writing is elegant and ambitious. He takes risks which pay off. Their Boy is a story of the evolution of a complicated relationship and the heartbreaking decisions that must be made. Beautiful and tragic, it is a worthy winner.”
Joshua Chizoma responded to the win with, “OMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGG.”
It’s been a good year for Chizoma who was also on the shortlist for the Afritondo Short Story Prize.
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