By Samuel Osaze
Lagos, Aug. 4, 2023: The 2023 CORA-Nigeria Prize for Literature Book Party will take place on Sunday Aug. 6, 2023, by 2pm, at the Shell Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos Island.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature is sponsored by the Nigeria LNG. This year, the focus genre is drama.
On July 20, the Advisory Board of the NPL chaired by professor of English, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, announced 11 longlisted playwrights who made the cut from the initial 143 entries.
Initiated in 2014, by the country’s leading literary campaign organisation, the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, the Book Party is described as an extension service to the campaign for literacy to advance Enlightenment, Education and Empowerment — CORA’s core commitment.
The 2023 event is the 14th since the literature-loving NLNG, signed on to the programme to boost its $100,000 prize project, reputed as the biggest on the continent.
A statement issued by the CORA programme Directorate, observed that the submission of 143 entries for the drama genre this year is impressive, as it shows that “Nigerian writers are indeed very productive, contrary to impression that the genre is not as popular among creative writers.”
The directorate noted further, “that the demography of the longlisted writers is cross-generational. It is encouraging that young writers are deeply interested in drama.”
The longlist this year, much like what happened last year when the poet Romeo Oriogun won, consists of old, midcareer, and young writers, who are in contention for the biggest literary prize on the continent and one of the biggest in the world.
With whopping USD100,000 at stake, the 2023 longlist writers, in no particular order, comprise: Bode Sowande – a septuagenarian university don whose play ‘The Spellbinder‘ is described by the NPL judges as “a psychological enquiry into cleansing of mental instability having forgiveness at the root of its resolution.”
Whereas, Abideen Abolaji Ojomu’s ‘The Ojuelegba Crossroads’ is said to take the reader “into a townhall to discuss in an engaging manner a metaphor of a society in dire need of purging, Olatunbosun Taofeek’s ‘Where is Patient Zero’ typifies a play full of drama and humour. It is an engagement on international politics of disease and economy.”
‘Grit’ by university teacher and a record fifth-timer on NPL longlist, Obari Gomba, “gives a deep insight into the destructive impact of soul-less politics which brings out the beast in man. The play is filled with conflicts that create the mood of the inevitability of tragedy. Tshe language is full of twists that entertain amid pains.”
‘Dance of The Sacred Feet’ by Ade Adeniji is concerned about “upholding the sanity of cultural tradition and yet making space to accommodate change and diversity for peace and progress.”
‘Yamtarawala- The Warrior King’ by Henry Akubuiro, an experienced art journalist whose foray into fictional works has come into reckoning, is described as “a historical play garnished with fascinating tales and rituals.”
While Victor Dugga’s ‘Gidan Juju’ dwells on “kingship and succession, revolutionizing tradition and inviting post-modernity”, Olubunmi Familoni’s ‘When Big Masquerades Dance Naked’ has an “insightful, socio-realistic subject-matter representing the dimension of systemic corruption and criminal alliance in traditional and contemporary political space.”
‘The Boat People’ by Christopher Anyokwu, an English and Literature lecturer, and a second timer on the NPL race, is described by the judges as presenting a “socio-culturally relevant subject-matter that is rich in techniques. An out-of-the-box crafting of the experiences referred to as “Japa.”
Those that may be considered to fall within the young writers’ clique include: Cheta Igbokwe and Abuchi Modilim. An MFA candidate at the Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Iowa, Cheta Igbokwe’s ‘Home Coming’, is captured as “a play that gives profound understanding of tragic experiences and the psychological life of the people. It is philosophical and gravely entertaining.” ‘The Brigadiers of a Mad Tribe’ by the winner of the 2021 Arojah Students Playwriting Prize, Abuchi Modilim, “is a discourse on the politics of marriage between science and voodoo.”
The list of 11 will eventually be whittled down to a shortlist of three. The eventual winner of the 2023 Nigeria Prize for Literature will be made public in a ceremony sometime in October.
Attendance at the 2023 CORA-NPL Book Party is strictly by invitation, however, online participation is public and accessible through: https://nlng.zoom.us/j/85997220875.
Intending online participants are required to RSVP to: 08036554119 (Osaze) or 08182857218 (Oyin). WhatsApp message preferred, please! (BookArtVille)
