NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature 2019 makes call out.

NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature 2019 has made a call out for children’s literature and literary criticism.

The NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, worth US$100,000 to the winner, is the richest prize in African literature. It was founded in 2004 to honour Nigerian authors in the four genres of fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature, repeating the cycle every four years. Over the last few years, winners have included Soji Cole for drama (2018), Ikeogu Oke for poetry (2017), Abubakar Adam Ibrahim for prose (2016), Sam Ukala for drama (2014), Tade Ipadeola for poetry (2013), and Chika Unigwe for prose (2012).

The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Literary Criticism Prize, sponsored by Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited, have published the Call for Entries for the 2019 edition of the prizes, flagging off this year’s competitions. This year the prize will focus on Children’s literature which was last to be awarded in 2015. Unfortunately, the judges who were assessing that year’s edition felt that there were no texts that were worthy of winning this prestigious prize.

This year the prize will be judged by a panel chaired by Prof Obododinma Oha poet, editor, and a translator, is a professor of Semiotics, Stylistics, and Creative Writing at the Department of English, University of Ibadan. Other members of the panel include Professor Asabe Usman Kabir and Dr Patrick Okolo. Professor Kabir is a professor of Oral and African Literature at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Dr Oloko, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos Nigeria’s specialization is in African postcolonial literature, gender, and cultural studies.

The 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’s Plant on October 9, 1999.