The longlist for the 2019 Nigeria Prize for Literature has been announced by the Nigeria LNG Limited, which sponsors the $100,000 award. The announcement was made on social media via Facebook live Thursday.
Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, who is Nigeria LNG Limited’s head of media confirmed the list, which has names like Jude Idada, Adaobi Tracia Nwaubani and Anote Ajeluorou, to be authentic. The other authors on the list are, Ndidi Enenemor, Anisa Daniel-Oniko, Nnenna Ochiche, Dunni Olatunde, Nkiru Uzo, Oladele Medaiyese, Lami Adejo Opwale and O.T. Begho. They emerged from 173 entries received for this year’s competition, which focuses on children’s literature.
The prize, which honours the author of the best book by a Nigerian rotates among four literary genres, namely Prose Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Children’s Literature.
A Call for Entries for the Literature Prize and Literary Criticism opened on February 15, 2019 and closed on April 5, 2019.
Professor Obododinma Oha is the chair of the panel of judges for this year’s Literature and the Literary Criticism competition. Professor Oha, poet, editor and translator, is a professor of Semiotics, Stylistics, and Creative Writing at the Department of English, University of Ibadan. He writes poems in English and Igbo.
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, specialization in African postcolonial literature, gender and cultural studies.