By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

No year ever dies because it carries its remains into the next year. As 2022 cedes place to 2023, Nigerian writers are still hard at work projecting the gains of the old year into the New Year and the vast future ahead.

There is hardly any major writing prize in the world that has not been won by Nigerian writers: the Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, Caine, Orange, Commonwealth, BBC etc. The institution of the Nigeria Prize for Literature by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has ensured that the country stands tall as the host of one of the most affluent literary awards in the world. As a spur for literary creation, the award, which is rotated yearly among the four genres of fiction, prose, poetry, drama and children’s literature, witnesses an upsurge of published works as entries in any chosen genre of the year.

The 2022 Prize was devoted to poetry, so there were more publications of poetry collections by Nigerian writers in the country and all over the world. The prize money of a hefty US$100,000 is a compelling incentive to write, for as Samuel Johnson wrote, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

Some 287 books were entered for the 2022 edition of the prize, and the judges eventually selected an initial longlist of 11 titles that included Augusta’s Poodle by Ogaga Ifowodo, Coming Undone as Stitches Tighten by Iquo Diana Abasi, dispossessed by James Eze, Ife Testament by  Segun Adekoya, Memory and the Call of Water by  Su’eddie Vershima Agema, Nomad by  Romeo Oriogun, The Lilt of the Rebel by Obari Gomba, The Love Canticles by Chijioke Amu Nnadi, Wanderer Cantos by  Remi Raji, Yawns and Belches by  Joe Ushie and Your Crib, My Qibla by  Saddiq Dzukogi.

Three authors were finally shortlisted to battle it out for the $100,000 coveted prize, namely, Su’eddie Vershima Agema, Romeo Oriogun and Saddiq Dzukogi. In the end, Romeo Oriogun won the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature with his poetry collection Nomad.

Aside from the poetry books that dominated Nigerian writing in 2022 due to the NLNG prize allure, other writers of fiction, drama, children’s literature, creative non-fiction etc. were also hard at work.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo’s novel Believers and Hustlers won the ₦1million Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and endowed by the Anambra State Government for the best novel published in the year. The shortlist for the prize included Rain Can Never Know by Michael Afenfia, and New York My Village by Uwem Akpan.

 Award-winning author, Chika Unigwe, is set to publish her new novel, Leaving Meshach, a loose adaptation of the myth of Hades and Persephone set in Enugu, and partly in Atlanta, USA, that tells the story of a vulnerable teenager, Nani, who is lured in by a much older man, Meshach, a self-proclaimed Man of God. Nigeria’s lionized poet, Niyi Osundare, recently unveiled his new collection of poems, GREEN: Sighs of Our Ailing Planet, and undertook well-attended readings in Abuja where he also delivered the Nigerian National Merit Award Winner’s Lecture.

Nigerian writing is obviously going to thrive even more in 2023 and in the years ahead. It should be borne in mind that Nigeria is getting into the 24^th year of the practice of non-stop democracy. The writers are getting freer to bare their minds and tell truth to power.

There is the driving need for the writers to see improved publishing services in the country like in the 1960s when foreign-owned companies such as Heinemann, Longmans, Macmillan, Evans, Oxford University Press etc. published properly edited books as opposed to the inferior self-printed books of today. As the NLNG put out in its mission statement as per setting up the Nigeria Prize for Literature, “prior to inauguration of the Prize, the quality of writing, publishing, news features and articles in newspapers and magazines, and the quality of film production on television and radio did not paint a picture of the excellence the industry was previously known for.”

The drive is on to ensure the publishing of quality creative books from out of Nigeria instead of depending almost totally on the elite publishers in Britain and America.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.