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Nigeria Prize for Literature

ないじぇりあぶんがくしょう

Annual Nigerian literary award rotating among fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature; sponsored by NLNG; US$100,000 prize.

FictionPoetryDramaChildren's literature
Established
2004
Organizer
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (sponsor); Nigerian Academy of Science (selection administration) with advisory board from Nigerian Academy of Letters and Association of Nigerian Authors
Category
Children's Literature, Fairy Tales, and Picture Books
Selection Method
Open call
Target
Open
Frequency
1 per year
Announcement Period
around October
Status
Active

Description

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, established in 2004 and first awarded in 2005, is sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and administered by the Nigerian Academy of Science with an advisory board from the Nigerian Academy of Letters and the Association of Nigerian Authors. The prize rotates every year among four genres—fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature—on a four-year cycle. The cash prize has risen from US$20,000 (initial) to US$30,000 in 2006, US$50,000 in 2008 and US$100,000 in 2011, making it one of the largest literary prizes in Africa. The award is normally announced in October. There have been years with no winner (2004, 2009, 2015).

Prize

Main Prize
US$100,000 to an individual winner (cash prize)
Cash Prize
100,000 USD
  • Winner's plaque
  • Public recognition and media coverage
  • Occasional workshops funded if no winner is selected

Selection

Selection Process

Submission / Eligibility check
Judges Submissions accepted; initial eligibility and completeness check (administered by NLNG/Nigerian Academy of Science staff and committee)
Announcement Eligible submissions are entered into the selection process; deadlines and submission procedures published on the official site
Shortlisting
Judges Panel of judges appointed by the Nigerian Academy of Science with advice from the advisory board (Nigerian Academy of Letters, Association of Nigerian Authors)
Announcement A shortlist is determined by the panel
Final judging
Judges Final panel of expert judges (literary scholars, authors, critics) convened to select the winner; panel can decide no award if standards not met
Announcement Winner selected (or no winner declared) by judges
Announcement / Presentation
Judges N/A (decision has been made by panel)
Announcement Winner usually announced in October via NLNG/official channels and press releases; prize presentation follows

Criteria

  • Excellence and literary craftsmanship
  • Quality of language and editing
  • Originality and literary merit
  • Suitability to the genre being judged in that cycle
  • Overall contribution to Nigerian literature

Application Tips

Dos

  • 提出前に徹底的に校正・編集を行う
  • その年に選考されるジャンル(フィクション、詩、戯曲、児童文学)に合った作品を応募する
  • 応募要項と資格条件を公式サイトで確認する
  • 独創性と高い文章表現力を重視する

Don''ts

  • 編集や語彙に不備のある原稿を提出すること
  • その年のジャンルに該当しない作品を応募すること
  • 剽窃や著作権を侵害する行為
  • 公式の応募手順や締切を無視すること

From Judges

  • 「Entries assessed were all 'incompetent in the use of language'」— 審査委員長(2015年)報告を受け、言語表現と編集の質が極めて重要であることが明示された
  • 審査員は言語の正確さ、編集の完成度、作品の文学的価値を重視する

Related Awards

  • Nigeria Prize for Science
  • Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa
  • 9mobile Prize for Literature
  • Grand Prix of Literary Associations
  • List of literary awards
  • List of the world's richest literary prizes

Official Resources

http://www.nlng.com/Our-CSR/Pages/The-Nigeria-Prizes.aspx

Past Winners

Olubunmi Familoni おるぶんみ ふぁみろに Winner

The novel follows Rilwan, a boy who loses his parents and is pushed into street labor by a cruel relative as he searches for a way to survive and belong. Even in the harshness of the street, music and unexpected companionship offer a narrow line of hope.

After losing his family, a boy keeps walking a road that seems to have no end.

154 pages
lossstreet survivalfamily rupturehopemusic
Obari Gomba おばり ごんば Winner

The play follows a family trapped in a political struggle that drives its members toward choices that wound one another. Through tense dialogue, it shows how political violence seeps into the home.

What tears the family apart is not power from outside, but desire that has already taken root inside.

97 pages
political dramafamily rupturepowerbetrayalmoral conflict
Oluwasegun Romeo Oriogun ろめお・おりおぐん Winner

This poetry collection is built around movement and exile, tracing the pain of leaving home and the instincts needed to survive elsewhere. As it moves across West Africa, questions of history, memory, the body, and borders keep overlapping.

Crossing borders becomes a way of searching for the place that has been lost.

124 pages
movementexilememorybordersqueer life
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe ちぇるち・おにえめるくうぇ Winner

A novel told through two women’s perspectives, tracing family, political upheaval, and the aftermath of conflict while following their strength and wounds across generations.

A novel told through two women’s perspectives, tracing famil…

278 pages
familywomenconflictmigrationpolitics
Jude Idada じゅうど・いだだ Winner

After losing his mother to sickle cell disease, Osaik must find a way to help his little sister, who faces the same illness. The children's novel combines grief, medical awareness, family loyalty, and hope through a direct and accessible story.

Even in grief, a boy sets out to save his sister.

240 pages
children's literaturesickle cell diseasefamilygrief and hopeWest Africa
Soji Cole そじ・こおる Winner

Embers is a play set in an internally displaced persons camp in northern Nigeria, where women live in the aftermath of Boko Haram violence. Through the conversations of young girls and the older woman Talatu, it examines war, exploitation, corruption around aid, and the fragile possibility of healing through speech.

Like embers that refuse to die, memories of violence smolder within the camp's daily life.

101 pages
dramainternally displaced personsBoko Haramwomen's voicestrauma
Ikeogu Oke いけおぐ・おけ Winner

A poetry collection that questions power and freedom through allegory and formal experimentation.

An ambitious poetic work that uses epic form to probe society, power, and freedom.

99 pages
poetrypoliticssocial criticismexperimentation
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim あぶばかる・あだむ・いぶらひむ Winner

Set in a local community, this novel entwines an age-gap relationship with religious and social taboos. The clash between individual desire and communal norms reveals complicated relationships shaped by violence, redemption, and atonement.

A forbidden relationship shakes the rules of the community.

320 pages
societyreligionloveatonementfamily
No winner
Sam Ukala さむ・うから Winner

A play about the 1906 uprising in the Owa Kingdom. It uses the cadence of oral literature to dramatize resistance to colonial rule and the memory of a community.

Oral tradition turns a history of resistance into drama.

102 pages
playoral literaturecolonialismhistorical drama
Tade Ipadeola たで・いぱでおら Winner
Chika Nina Unigwe ちか・うにぐうぇ Winner
304 pages
Adeleke Adeyemi あでれけ・あでぃぇみ Winner
105 pages
Esiaba Irobi えしあば・いろび Winner
No winner
Kaine Agary けいん・あがりー Winner
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo あかち・あでぃもら=えぜいぐぼ Winner
115 pages
Mabel Segun めいべる・せぐん Winner
Ahmed Parker Yerima あーめど・いぇりま Winner
Ezenwa-Ohaeto えぜんわ・おはえと Winner
Gabriel Okara がぶりえる・おから Winner
No winner