The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2022 has announced the shortlist of three poets, one of which will go home with this year’s prize money worth USD$100,000.
Su’eddie Vershima Agema's Memory and the Call of Water, Romeo Oriogun's Nomad and Saddiq Dzukogi's Your Crib, My Qibla are the three poetry books on the queue for the coveted laurel which favoured poetry collections this year.
The announcement for the NNLG Prize shortlist was publicised virtually on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to millions of followers in the literary community.
Making the shortlist announcement was the Advisory Board Chairperson, Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo, who was flanked on both sides by two of her board members, Professors Ahmed Yerima and Olu Obafemi.
The prize jury are university professor, E.E. Sule (Chair); poet, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and performance poet, Dike Chukwumerije.
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| Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo |
According to Ezeigbo, “The books, in alphabetical order, are Memory and the Call of Waters by Su’eddie Vershima Agema. In this collection, There is a consistent use of memory to reflect on life and destiny through the metaphor of water. Nomad by Romeo Oriogun. The collection has a fresh language and a nostalgic engagement with the theme of exile and displacement. And Your Crib, My Qibla by Saddiq Dzukogi. This volume translates tragedy into lyrical poetry with pathos and effortless imageries.
“This year, our International Consultant who will also do a review of the books on the shortlist along with the judges, is Prof. Susan Nalugwa Kiguli. She is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar. She’s an Association of Professor of Literature at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.”
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| Su’eddie Vershima Agema |
As teasers, here are excerpts from reviews of the three poetry collections. First is Agema’s Memory and the Call of Waters in AnoteArtHub: “From ‘When traffic lights went out’ in honour of Pius Adesanmi who died in a plane crash to ‘Transition II’ where ‘Our compound is a testament to the earth’s theft/ littered with concrete mounds, pillowed with/ fading names. Forgotten stories,’ Agema mourns the beginning of nightmares in his people’s encounter with herders who are the genesis of ‘earth’s theft’ of his compound. While in ‘Transition,’ ‘these graves are an encyclopaedia/ pages of our mostly forgotten past’, of deaths that occurred naturally, ‘Transition II’ assumes the macabre dance of herders murdering whole villages just to make way for cows to graze:
‘This river, this river…running behind the houses,/ rushes with urgency and waves as I leave/ warning of a time when herdsmen might lead us to Golgotha./ Our ityo, elders stand helpless while my daughter sighs from afar./ I raise a dirge of too many memories filled with holes,/ waiting to be patched when I become the earth.”
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| Saddiq Dzukogi |
Also from TheNews magazine by Nehru Odeh is Dzukogi’s Your Crib, My Qibla: “Still, the pathos in Dzukogo’s poetry not only rings true it is also palpable. The collection is not just about a poet grieving the loss of his child, but a poet betraying strong, haunting emotions, which the reader senses line after line, metaphor after metaphor and imagery after imagery. And the memories that keep bopping up again and again and the sense of loss grip the reader so well that they also feel the poet’s pains and trauma.
“A salient feature of the collection is its polyphony, its multiplicity of voices, the striking manner in which the poet gave his daughter voice in the second section of the book and makes it dialogic. The book is not just about a poet expressing his own feelings but also about how he makes it dialogic, democratic and interactive by making his daughter, who is still alive though dead, express her own feeling.”
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| Romeo Oriogun |
And Romeo Oriogun’s Nomad is described thus:
“Oriogun combines the exploratory intensity of travel poetry with the confessional fidelity of a memoir to paint the journey of a curious child sculpting his truth into questing words across strange and known terrains. The result is a deeply attentive work brimming with wisdom and a power of observation.”
Undoubtedly, all eyes is now on October when the winner will be announced from the shortlist of three poets. Fingers crossed.
Best wishes to the trio, from all of us at The Words Finesse (TWF).
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| Prof. Wọlé Soyinka |
Excitement In UAE as Nigeria’s Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, is appointed Arts Professor of Theater at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), effective September 1.
“Remember Wole Soyinka? The beloved Nigerian playwright and Nobel Laureate? Well, he is now a member of the faculty at the NYU Abu Dhabi,” Gulf News announced as excitement permeated Abu Dhabi and the entire United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Words Finesse reports that the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) appointed Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, Arts Professor of Theater effective September 1, 2022.
Described by the gulf newspaper as a “multifaceted artist-dramatist, poet, essayist, musician, philosopher, teacher, human rights activist, and global artist and scholar,” Soyinka is reportedly joining the “NYUAD Theater Program as a full-time faculty member, thereby offering the community direct access to one of the world’s greatest thinkers.”
Soyinka’s appointment is aligned with NYUAD’s Academic Strategy and its mission as a university in and of Abu Dhabi and the UAE. He will play a key role in continuing to enhance the University’s standing within the arts and its growth as a preeminent research and teaching university and leader in global higher education.
"It is a great honor to have Wole Soyinka, a world-renowned artist, academic, and activist, a true citizen of the world and a Nobel laureate join our NYUAD community,’’ said NYUAD vice chancellor Mariët Westermann.
“Our location in Abu Dhabi, a transnational crossroads for the exchange of cultural and artistic traditions, positions NYUAD uniquely to catalyse new creativity and discourse. We are excited to provide a home in the UAE for the beauty and power of Soyinka’s contributions to our understanding of our histories and our humanity,” she added.
“Soyinka has built an impressive legacy in his home country of Nigeria as well as Africa and the entire world. The students he has taught and mentored, and the legion of teachers who have translated, developed and extended his ideas, remain the most tangible and long-lasting legacy. Our community is privileged to be part of that journey and his ongoing work that will impact generations to come,” said NYUAD provost Arlie Petters.
Soyinka has published more than 90 works on culture and tradition, creativity and power, activism, and the artistic process. His most recent book published in 2021, ‘Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth’, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and has been described in the Los Angeles Times as a tour de force combining “elements of a murder mystery, a searing political satire and an Alice in Wonderland-like modern allegory of power and deceit”. Soyinka has previously held positions at other higher education institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Duke, Emory, and Loyola Marymount in the United States. He is also an active member of international, artistic, and human rights organisations.
In terms of his works, Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel (1959), A Dance of the Forests (1960), Kongi’s Harvest (1964), and Death and the King’s Horseman (1975) are widely regarded as his best works. Along with his writing career, he has worked as an actor, and in theaters in Nigeria and Great Britain.
The NYUAD Theater Program is an academic and artistic laboratory dedicated to theater research, scholarship, and practice. For NYUAD’s theater majors, the making, thinking, creating and articulating of culture are inseparable, and the overall aim is to develop artist-citizens whose theatrical contributions will expand the limits of the field and make a difference in the world. NYUAD Theater Program graduates collaborate with other artists, scientists, and scholars across disciplines and invent new and hybrid cultural practices that will define and influence theater in the UAE and beyond.
The Kwara State Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (Kwara ANA) calls for submissions on its Girl-Child Rights Creative Work Compendium Titled: GLASS ROSES.
Unpublished original works in genres of Poetry, Prose, Drama, Book review, Article critique, and Visual arts are eligible for submission.
Submission should be Sent by Clicking This Link and Fill the Form Or mailing to Kwara ANA's email: kwaraana15@gmail.com
Submission deadline is March 25th, 2022.
For Correspondences or Inquiries, Contact: Abdul on +2348038419857, Sakeenah on +2348100616543 and Rofiat on +2348083853800.
