Sefi Atta wins Noma Award and our Toni Kan also shines

Sefi Atta has won this year’s Noma

Award for Publishing in Africa. Her collection of short stories titled,

Lawless and Other Stories published last year by Farafina, an imprint

of Kachifo Limited, Lagos, won her the prize, which is worth $10,000

(about N1.5million).

The collection came first among entries from 43 publishers from 12 African countries. Three other titles got honourable mention.

At home, the Association of Nigerian

Authors (ANA), which ended its yearly convention in Minna, Niger State

at the weekend, also announced the winners of its 2009 literary prizes.

Among the winners are Toni Kan of NEXT and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.

Adimora-Ezeigbo won the prestigious ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize worth

$1,000 with her first ever poetry book titled Heartsongs, while Kan and

Ozioma Izuora jointly won the ANA/NDDC Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose

with Nights of the Creaking Bed and Dreams Deferred respectively.

At the 2009 Noma Award, three other

books got a ‘honourable mention’. These are: Dancing with Life: Tales

from the Township by Zimbabwean Christopher Mlalazi, Leila ou la femme

de l’aube by Sonia Chamkhi of Tunisia and Love in the Time of Treason by Zubeida Jaffer Atta becomes the fourth Nigerian winner of the Noma

Award. Felix C. Adi’s Health Education for the Community published by

Nwamife Publishers won the prize in 1981, while Niyi Osundare’s Waiting

for Laughter published by Malthouse Press won in 1991. Odun Ifa/Ifa

Festival by Abosede Emmanuel and published by West African Book

Publishers won in 2001.

Atta, a former chartered accountant

turned writer is not a stranger to literary prizes. She won the PEN

International 2004/5 David T.K. Wong Prize and the first Wole Soyinka

Prize for Literature in Africa in 2006 for her debut novel, Everything

Good Will Come.

Gripping Nigerian stories

The jury’s citation reads: “This collection of short stories and a novella represent the work of a first class writer.

The gripping stories of the Nigerian

quotidian are of consistently high quality and uniformly outstanding.

The writer has an immense gift of language and mastery of narrative in

which she redefines the Nigerian social imaginary.” She will receive

her prize at a special ceremony at a yet-to-be announced date.

The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa

was established in 1979 and is open to African writers and scholars

whose work is published in Africa.

Other winners of the ANA Prizes announced in Minna include:

Ndidi Enenmor, who won the ANA/Atiku

Abubakar Prize for Children’s Literature with the story, One Little

Mosquito, Roy Nkwocha won the ANA/Funtime Prize for Children’s

Literature, with the book: Cry No More, while the ANA/NDDC Flora Nwapa

Prize for Women Writing was won by Beyond Imagination written by

Goldlyn Ugonna .

The ANA/Jacaranda Prize for Prose was won by Inyang E.

Ekwo for Storm in the Will, while the ANA/Lantern Prize for Children

Fiction was won by Henry Akubuiro with his story: The Little Wizard of

Okokomaiko. The ANA/Chevron Prose Prize on Environmental Issues was won

by B.M. Ihebom with The Web, while ANA/NDDC Gabriel Okara Prize for

Poetry went to What the Sea Told Me by E.E. Sule. ANA/James Ene Henshaw

Prize for Playwriting was won by Ade Adeniji with Dance of the Sacred

Feet, Victor Dugga won the ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark prize for Drama with

Hope Harvesters, while ANA/Mazariyya Teen Author Prize for Poetry, went

to A Collection of Poems by Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto.

At the end of the authors’ conference,

a new national executive council to direct the affairs of the

association was also elected. Those elected at the 28th annual

convention held in Minna, Niger from October 29 to November 1, are

Jerry Agada, a former minister of state for education as president. He

defeated Yahaya Dangana by 155 votes to 47. Sunday Ododo with 103 votes

was elected vice president of the association ahead of Martin Akpan and

Charry Ada Onwu with 42 and 54 votes respectively.

Hyacinth Obunseh, the former assistant

general secretary of the body defeated Chike Ofili by 103 votes to 93

to emerge the new general secretary.

Five people were returned unopposed.

Alkasim Abdulkadir, assistant general secretary; Mariam Ali Ali,

treasurer; public relations officer (South), Ebika Anthony; public

relations officer (North), Omale Allen Abduljabar and legal adviser,

Tade Ipadeola.

Ofonime Inyang of the Akwa Ibom State chapter is the new financial

secretary. He polled 104 votes against Aliyu Sanni’s 82. Four other

writers, Denja Abdullahi, Jare Ajayi, Joy Esuku and Muri Awosemo

emerged as ex-officio members.