Parresia has just announced its 2015 List for the Parrésia Books imprint. They made the selection from manuscripts submitted from within Nigeria and from outside the country. From these, which were in the hundreds, four manuscripts were chosen to go on to literary glory. They belong to Ifesinachi Okoli-Okpagu, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Maik Nwosu and Amara Nicole Okolo.
Ifesinachi Okoli-Okpagu is a Lagos based Marketing Communications executive with over six years’ experience, including being an Associate Producer of a pan-African TV show and managing Fabulous City—a community for young & ambitious business women. Her first novel Lagos Girl is a novel about the unnecessary pressure on women to take on life partners, regardless of who these partners are. It will be out in November.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim isn’t new to readers of this blog. The writer and journalist’s debut short story collection The Whispering Trees, Parrésia Books, 2013, is currently a recommended text in several Nigerian universities and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014 with the title story being shortlisted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing. The Africa39er’s new book Season of Crimson Blossoms is about the affair between 52-year-old widow Binta Zubairu and a 26-year old political thug and weed dealer simply known as Reza is bound to cause a ripple in the conservative society they find themselves. It will be out in November as well.
Maik Nwosu is an associate professor of English at the University of Denver, Colorado. His poetry collection, Suns of Kush, was awarded the Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize in 1995. His novels, Invisible Chapters and Alpha Song, received the Association of Nigerian Authors Prose Prize and the Association of Nigerian Authors/Spectrum Prose Prize in 1999 and 2002 respectively. He has also published a short story collection, Return to Algadez. His new book is called A Gecko’s Farewell and will be out in March 2016.
Amara Nicole Okolo is a young lawyer from Anambra State and looks to add to the new tradition of lawyer writers in the Nigerian literary scene. The Abuja resident’s book new book Son of Men will be out in March next year.
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