Nigerian comes second in 2016 SSDA Contest

A Nigerian, TJ Benson came second in the 2016 edition of the Short Story day Africa (SSDA) contest for his story, ‘Tea’. “A Door Ajar” by Sibongile Fisher won the competition while Megan Ross is second runner-up for ‘Farang’. “The theme was ‘Migrations’ so I submitted a story about a naive Tiv girl who escaped […]

A Nigerian, TJ Benson came second in the 2016 edition of the Short Story day Africa (SSDA) contest for his story, ‘Tea’.

“A Door Ajar” by Sibongile Fisher won the competition while Megan Ross is second runner-up for ‘Farang’.

“The theme was ‘Migrations’ so I submitted a story about a naive Tiv girl who escaped the Taraba crisis that destroyed her village only to be migrated to Italy by a trafficker who disguised as a savior of displaced persons and used the girl for pornographic videos against her will,” Benson told Bookshelf.

He explained that winning an international award has increased his reach. “The SSDA Prize is a South African competition and has brought me friends all over Africa whom I connect with on social media, especially those on the long list with me. I get to be taken more seriously. I can’t shrink away from the ‘almighty writer’ title anymore.”

Speaking on one of his previous short stories that trended on Social media, Benson said, “The Spirit and the Chi was one of my many experiments. I had real fun playing with Igbo mythology and gauging the struggle with foreign religions like Christianity.”

Speaking on what to expect in the nearest future he said “I won an agency deal by being shortlisted for the Saraba Manuscript Prize in the middle of this year, so the manuscript which was shortlisted should come out soon as part of the deal. It is a collection of Sci-fi stories set in Nigeria.”