184 Poets, $100,000, 1 prestigious award

On May 14th, the entries for the 2017 edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature were sent over to the Advisory Board to determine the winner at a ceremony in Lagos. This year's edition will specifically focus on poetry.

Vanguard came out with an article on the event. Their article focused mainly on the event itself and gave many background facts to readers who might not be as informed on this award. They included information such as "The hand-over of the entries to the Advisory Board, chaired by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, marked the take-off of the judging process which is expected to climax in October 2017 when a winner will emerge." The article also included facts about how the competition began in 2004 and will focus on poetry this year which is different from past years.

ThisDayLive also published an article on the Nigeria Prize for Literature. This article differed slightly from Vanguard's article. ThisDayLive focused on not only basic facts of this year's competition, but on history of the competition such as past years and why the prize is given. Something I found interesting in this article was about the 2015 competition. They said "It is not every year that a deserving winner is found. For instance in 2015, no winner emerged from the competition where 109 entries were received for the Children's Literature category. Some of the reasons given for this include grave editing and publishing errors."

Regardless of who does or doesn't win, External Director, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke said that the competition has inspired about 1,630 books since it began in 2004. More and more people enter each year and that is something to be proud of.

photo originally from: Opportunity Desk