The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature on Friday released the long list of 11 drawn from 287 books in the running for the 2022 edition of the prize which for this year focuses on poetry.
The literature prize, sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) with a cash award of $100 thousand is an annual ritual that rotates amongst four literary categories – prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature.
The 11 books on the long list 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; Yawns and Belches by Joe Ushie; and Your Crib, My Qibla by Saddiq Dzukogi.
The list was presented to the Advisory Board by the Chairman, Panel of Judges for this year’s prize, Sule Emmanuel Egya, a professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State.
Other judges are Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, apPoet and fiction writer; and spoken word and performance poet and award-winning author, Dike Chukwumerije.
The judges described the longlist of eleven as the best of contemporary Nigerian poetry, rich in experimentation with language, style and theme.
The judges will also continue adjudication on the 87 entries for The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism, which runs concurrently with The Nigeria Prize for Literature. The literary criticism prize carries a monetary value of N1 million.
A shortlist of three is expected in September, and the winner, if any, will be announced by the Advisory Board in October.
