New Generation Nigerian Literature

Literature Prize, it’s new writers’ turn
By Gregory Austin Nwakunor
Excerpted from Guardian Newspaper

The new generation of Nigerian writers has never had it so good. Since 2004, when the Nigerian Literature Prize was instituted, this is the first time a new writer will mount the podium to receive the country’s most prized literary award.

Only last Thursday, September 4, after months of intensive scrutiny by eminent judges, the Nigeria Prize for Literature committee announced a shortlist of two books, Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow and Jude Dibia’s Unbridled, as potential winners of this year’s Prize.

Both Kaine and Dibia are not only new writers, they were equally born in the 70s. If one of them emerges winner of this year’s award, he or she will walk away with a $50,000 prize money, an increase from last year’s $30,000. [read the rest]