Top 10 literary events in Nigeria

There were many literary events that took place this year. Some of them debuted, while some recorded yet another successful outing. Bookshelf offers a list. Ake Festival This festival ran for the sixth time this year with the theme, ‘Fantastical Futures’. Usually an Abeokuta (Ogun State) event, this year it took place for the first […]

There were many literary events that took place this year. Some of them debuted, while some recorded yet another successful outing.
Bookshelf offers a list.

Ake Festival This festival ran for the sixth time this year with the theme, ‘Fantastical Futures’. Usually an Abeokuta (Ogun State) event, this
year it took place for the first time in Lagos. Ake Arts and Book Festival is four days of cultural activities that include poetry, book readings
and discussions, film shows, art exhibitions, theatre performances and much more. This year’s guests included award-winning sci-fi
writer, Nnedi Okorafor, 2016 Man Booker Prize winning author Paul Beatty, Nollywood director and actor, Kunle Afolayan and many
more.

LABAFF The Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAFF) was birthed in 1999 and remains a hub for book lovers, publishers, artists and creatives.
It’s a seven-day event designed as a campaign for literacy and human capital development that includes book reading sessions, conversations, art and craft, dance, drama and so on. Students and writers are also mentored through workshops. This year, ASIRI, an online culture and history magazine, founded by Oludamola Adebowale, featured illustrations at the festival, with the aim to draw attention to Nigerian history.

LIPFEST The theme for this year’s Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFEST) was ‘Wide Awake’, an examination of the “growing importance of vigilance in a posttruth era.” Conversations explored new frontiers in the fight for gender and identity, racial and social justice and how the concerns of awakening collective consciousness and mediating justified paranoia animates art.

Flagging off in 2015, the festival has since brought poets, writers, artists, and thinkers from across the world to Lagos.

KABAFEST Debuting in 2017, the Kaduna Book and Arts Festival (KABAFEST) is a four-day programme of Arts and bookfocused events which includes workshops, performances, an art exhibition, a film screening and panel discussions with Nigerian and international writers and thinkers.

Following the success of the maiden edition last year, this year’s edition featured up to 70 guests that comprised writers, poets, actors, musicians, artists and filmmakers. It’s arguably the most vibrant arts event in northern Nigeria.

ANA Convention The Association of Nigerian Authors’ (ANA) annual convention is an annual event that takes place in different parts of the country. In 2017 it took place in Abuja, while Lagos played host this year with the theme, ‘Literature:

Bookshelf Megacities and Mega-narratives’. Aside being an opportunity for all the state chapters to update one another on the association’s progress, it also provides an avenue for book chats, book sales, poetry, drama and more. The association was founded on June 27, 1981, during a conference convened by the late Professor Chinua Achebe.

Quramo Prize

The Quramo Writers’ Prize (QWP) is an African Award for new and emerging writers. It aims to encourage and stimulate a new community of talented writers, providing an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition and encouragement. In April 2017, QWP launched its contest for unpublished writers where it called for writers to submit unpublished work of fiction and nonfiction. Open in two categories, a general prize and an under-16 prize. A winner in each category was announced at the inaugural award ceremony on October 2, 2017. The first winners, Samuel Monye, won for his story about a small child traversing the human trafficking route in Libya titled, ‘Give Us Each Day ‘and 13-year-old Arshiya in the junior category for ‘The Forgotten’, are having their books published this year by Quramo Publishing.

NLNG Prize

Popularly known as the NLNG Prize because it is sponsored by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company, the Nigerian Prize for Literature is arguably the most lucrative award any Nigerian writer can get. Worth $100,000 (over N40m) this prize rotates yearly from prose, poetry, drama to children’s literature. This year, Soji Cole won for his play, ‘Embers’. Last year’s winner under the poetry category, Ikeogu Oke, died a few weeks ago and the literary world still mourns him for his immense contribution. Oke won for his book, ‘The Heresiad’. Writers are already warming up for next year’s award, which will be awarded to the best work of children’s literature.

9mobile Prize

Sponsored by 9mobile telecommunications company, the 9mobile Prize for Literature (formerly the Etisalat Prize for Literature) celebrates debut African writers of published fiction. The winner gets £15,000 (over N6m) and is granted a fellowship at the University of East Anglia to study creative writing. Nigeria’s Jowhor Ile was 2016 winner for his novel, ‘And After Many Days’. Two Nigerians and a South African have been shortlisted for the 2017 prize. They include ‘What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky’ by Lesley Nneka Arimah (United Kingdom/Nigeria), ‘Stay with Me’ by Ayọbámi Adébáyọ (Nigeria), and ‘Asylum’ by Marcus Low (South Africa).

Wole Soyinka Prize

The Lumina Foundation established the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in honour of Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Every two years, the prize, worth $10,000 (over N3m) is awarded to the best literary work produced by an African. Several days ago, Nigeria’s Tanure Ojaide and Uganda’s Harriet Arena were announced as the joint winners of the 2018 prize.

Previous winners of the prize have included novelists Sefi Atta for ‘Everything Will Come,’ and the South African Sifiso Mzobe for ‘Young Blood’.

AlitFest

The Abuja Literary Festival (AlitFest) organised by the Abuja Literary Society debuted this year in Abuja. It proved to be a remarkable beginning. Tagged “A celebration of literary and artistic expression,” the four-day festival of art and culture, which featured creatives from within and outside Nigeria, included workshops for younger writers, panel discussions and thrilling performance of film, drama, music and poetry.