This year’s focus for the competition was poetry. 184 entries were received, from which an Advisory Board led by Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo shortlisted eleven books for the longlist. The final shortlist of three will be announced in September.
The prize for winning the award is $100,000.00 and the winner will be chosen by a panel of judges to be chaired by Ernest Emenyonu, a professor at the University of Michigan, US. Other members of the panel are Razinat Mohammed, associate professor of literature at the University of Maiduguri, and Tade Ipadeola, poet, lawyer and winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2013.
Below are the works that made the first cut in alphabetical order.
Akinlabi, Peter – Iconography
Ekwuazi, Hyginus – One Day I’ll Dare to Raise My Middle Finger at the Stork and the Reaper
Gomba, Obari – For Every Homeland
Ifowodo, Ogaga – A Good Mourning
Lari-Williams, Seun – Garri for Breakfast
Ogu, Humphrey – Echoes of Neglect
Ojaide, Tanure – Songs of Myself: Quartet
Oke, Ikeogu – The Heresiad
Othman, Abubakar – Blood Streams in the Desert
Verissimo, Jumoke – The Birth of Illusion
Yeibo, Ebi – Of Waters and the Wild
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