Ugandan poet longlisted for Wole Soyinka prize
Friday November 09 2018
Harriet Anena, a Ugandan poet and short story writer. PHOTO | COURTESY TWITTER
Ugandan poet Harriet Anena has been longlisted for the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. This is the sixth edition of the prize.
Nine other African poets have been listed and Anena’s entry is her poetry collection titled A Nation In Labour.
Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform in 2015, A Nation In Labour features 50 poems.
“Being on the longlist means my work is being read and appreciated by audiences beyond Uganda,” Anena said.
According to the Lumina Foundation, the organisers of the prize, some 110 entries were submitted from 11 African countries.
The other poets on the list are Dami Ajayi for Clinical Blues, Hyinus Ekwuazi for One Day, I’ll Dare to Raise My Middle Finger at the Stark and the Reaper, Su’eddie Vershima Agema for Home Equals Holes: Tale of An Exile, Tanure Ojaide for Songs of Myself, Iquo Eke for Symphony of Becoming, Servio Gbadamosi for A Tributary in Servitude, Abayomi Animashaun for Sailing for Ithaca, and Onesi Taiwo Dominic for Heaven on Earth - A Harvest of Poems.
A shortlist of the final three poets will be announced on November 21 on Victoria Island, Lagos, and the winner declared on December 9, at the Muson Centre, in Onikan in Lagos.
The overall winner will receive $10,000 and the citation will be read by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.
This year’s jury members were Margaret Busby OBE (chair), Prof Toyin Falola and Prof Olu Obafemi.
The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa was started by the Lumina Foundation to celebrate excellence in all its cerebral grace, its liberating quality, and the honour and recognition it brings to people of diverse cultures and languages. The inaugural edition was held on August 5, 2006 at the Muson Centre.
“Wole Soyinka is the very first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which brought honour to Africa, to Nigeria, to so many people. If a sound mind brought us so much honour, why do we neglect the mind? At the Lumina Foundation, we decided to honour Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature. By extension, we honour people who have used their talents to affect others positively,” the foundation says.