[size=14pt]Four Nigerians, six others vie for Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa[/size]
By Anote Ajeluorou

Organisers of the Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, The Lumina Foundation, has announced 10 entries for the longlist for the biggest literary prize on the continent worth US$20,000. Nigeria leads the pack of 10 writers in the race with four writers contesting for the prestigious prize.



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/apr/5/2.html

South Africa comes second with two entries followed by Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Algeria with one entry each. The full list runs thus: Coconut by Kopano Matlwa (South Africa), Salutes without Guns by Ikeogu Oke (Nigeria), Bullfrog and stone workers by Farah Delwana (Kenya), I Do Not Come To You BY Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (Nigeria), The Weight of Waiting by Chike Ofili (Nigeria), and The Farm House by Samsudeen Kpakloh (Algeria). Others are Tenants of the House by Wale Odediran (Nigeria), Bitches' Brew by Fred Khumalo (South Africa), The Green Bird by Kofi Appiah (Ghana), and The Bleeding Angel by Tamara Quasi (Zimbabwe).

A summary of entries indicates that Nigerian writers entered a total of 125 entries followed by South Africa with 68 while Ghana had 47 entries. Zimbabwe had 19 and Kenya 18; Uganda 13, Congo and North Africa 12 entires each. Cote De Ivoire had nine with Mali and Togo four and three entires respectively to make up a total of 330 overall entries for the 2010 edition of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. The organizers said four entries were rejected "because they didn't meet the criteria for entry".

Entries for this year's edition show a clear year-by-year improvement on the awareness the prize is generating among African writers. The first edition in 2006 received 87 entries; it was won by Nigeria's Sefi Atta with her book Everything Good Will Come. In the 2008 edition, 126 entries were received, and the prize was also won by Nigeria's Nnedi Okoroafor Nbachu with her book Zara the Windseeker. The awareness generated for this year's edition may have sprung from the tour embarked upon by the founder and CEO of The Lumina Foundation Dr. Ogochukwu Promise to several African countries to engender writers' full participation in the contest.

On April 15, 2010, the shortlist will be announced preparatory to the grand finale scheduled for April 30. Prof. Soyinka will personally hand over the award money and plaque to the winner of the prestigious prize for literary achievement in Africa, a prize hailed in some quarters as the African Nobel. Judges for the prize award include Nigeria's Prof. Olu Obafemi, who is chairman; Eid Shabir, a literary critic from North Africa, Liesl Louw, a South African journalist, Becky Ayebia Clerk, publisher and critic from Ghana, and Veronique Tadjo, a writer and painter from Cote d'Ivoire.

So, who wins the African Nobel this year? Already, Nigeria has not only led by number but by four quality entries that cannot be ignored. They are entries capable of silencing critics who argue that only Nigerians have won the prize so far since its inception in 2006, largely as they say, because it is instituted by a Nigerian and in Nigeria. But this argument seems puerile by the sheer quality of works that have won the prize so far.

Already, one of Nigeria's contestants has given indication that Nigeria may yet hold the ace in this year's prize having won the 2010 First Best book of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature with her I Do Not Come To You BY Chance, a work by a Nigerian journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani working with Next. The other prose fiction in the race from Nigeria is former president Association of Nigerian Authors and former Federal House of Representative member Dr. Wale Okediran with his Tenants of the House, a charming work that chronicles the intrigues in Nigeria's legislative process.

The other two entries are poetry collections Salutes without Guns by Ikeogu Oke and The Weight of Waiting by Chike Ofili. These two works also post a significant literary statement that cannot be glossed over. With the four Nigerian writers making the longlist, fears of Diaspora writers dominating and finally winning the prize has been allayed. All the four writers are virtually homegrown, which is a significant development from past experience. With anyone of them possibly winning the prize, morale would have been bolstered among local writers that indeed they may yet have their day in the sun.

Although not much is known yet about the other entries from other parts of the continent, of course because of the publishing and distribution lacuna plaguing creative works generally, it will be safe to say that the best writers on the continent have possibly been assembled as well to make the contest as competitive as the organizers want it to be. The Lumina Foundation, which is being run by an award winner writer herself, has promised the best of creative writing from the continent that can stand tall alongside works from other parts of the world.

One of its cardinal goals is making available to a wider audience the winning works for the collective enjoyment of readers across board through a publishing effort being worked out by the foundation to pursue the growth of Literature on the continent.

Aloy+Emeka:

[size=14pt]Four Nigerians, six others vie for Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa[/size]
By Anote Ajeluorou

Organisers of the Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, The Lumina Foundation, has announced 10 entries for the longlist for the biggest literary prize on the continent worth US$20,000. Nigeria leads the pack of 10 writers in the race with four writers contesting for the prestigious prize.



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/apr/5/2.html

THE NIGERIA LNG PRIZE IS $50, 000 FOR A SINGLE WINNER.