11 Poets Make NLNG’s $100,000 Literature Prize Longlist

The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature has approved the release of the Longlist of 11 in the running for the 2022 edition.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG to promote and reward excellence in writing, rotates yearly amongst four literary categories of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature.

The 11 books on the longlist released on Friday, in alphabetical order by their titles, are Augusta’s Poodle by Ogaga Ifowodo, Coming Undone As Stitches, Tighten by Iquo DianaAbasi, Dispossessed by James Eze, Ife Testament by Olusegun Adekoya and Memory and the Call of Waters by S. Su’eddie Agema.

Others are Nomad by Romeo Oriogun, The Lilt of The Rebel by Obari Gomba, The Love Canticles by Chijioke Amu Nnadi, Wanderer Cantos by Remi Raji and Yawns and Belches by Joe Ushie.

The 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature initially had 287 poets compete for the $100,000 Prize.

At the online announcement, the entries received were handed over to the panel of judges by the Chair of the Prize’s Advisory Board, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.

Adimora-Ezeigbo noted that the process would continue as “a shortlist of three is expected in September and hopefully, a winner in October.’’

Author and professor of Law at Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, won the 2021 prize with her novel, Son of the House.