Kadiri Alex was announced the winner of the Quramo Writers’ Prize 2020 at the closing ceremony of the Quramo Festival of Words (QFest2020) on October 4, 2020.
The Quramo Writers’ Prize is awarded annually to an unpublished fiction manuscript by an unpublished author. The award was founded by Nigeria-based Quramo Publishers to encourage and stimulate a new community of talented writers as well as provide an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition. Previous winners have been Samuel Monye (2017), Michael Emmanuel (2018), and Vivian Onyekachi Ibe (2019).
The judges for the 2020 iteration of the prize, Toni Kan, Molara Wood, and A. Igoni Barrett announced the fifteen finalists of the prize on September 2. The winner of the prize was revealed on Sunday evening at the closing ceremony of the Quramo Festival of Words (QFest2020) run over the weekend in Lagos, Nigeria.
The third place went to Adeniyi Timilehin for his entry, Unchained which was described by the judges as “a story that riffs on domestic violence as the big theme but there is of course the mental health component.”
The second place went to Aliyu Baba-Ari for his entry The Paths That Take Us which the judges noted is a “beautifully crafted, topical, and bloody story. It is Nigeria’s contemporary story writ large and a well-told story by a gifted and confident writer.”
The first prize was awarded to Kadiri Alex, for his entry Sunshower. In their citation, the judges described Sunshower as “a young man’s coming-of-age story told in the shadow of his mother’s illness as well as his troubled relationship with his father. We consider this entry a beautifully wrought tale told by a gifted storyteller with an uncanny facility for words. We believe that our winning entry is a very rewarding read, with a solid conclusion and as such a deserving first place winner.”
Kadiri Alex goes home with the 1 Million Naira Prize money.
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