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CORA-NLNG Book Party holds at MUSON today

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor
28 July 2019   |   3:25 am
The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited will hold this year’s Book Party at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Lagos. The party holds today and time is from 2:00 p.m.

MUSON center, Onikan

The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited will hold this year’s Book Party at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Lagos. The party holds today and time is from 2:00 p.m.

The Book Party will focus on children’s literature and the 11 finalists (long list) of the yearly Nigeria Prize for Literature endowed and promoted by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG.

The event features readings and discussions around the 11 books longlisted for the N35.7 million Nigerian Prize for Literature, which is now in its 15th year. The party is on the 10th of 2009.

“The party is used to celebrate the authors and their works for emerging as some of the very best in the country”, said Jahman Anikulapo, CORA’s Programme Chair. “If you make it to the last 11 out of the highly competitive entries, the public needs to hear your voice.”

The former editor of The Guardian On Sunday said that the authors would be brought face-to-face with the core of Lagos literary community as well as members of the larger public who show up at the party.

The Book Party, as manifested in the past editions, is to bring the long-listed writers and books face-to-face with the literary audiences so that they could create conversations around the work and the author.

According to Toyin Akinosho, CORA’s scribe, “the objectives are to help bring the works and profiles of the finalists to larger public attention before the announcement of the final three finalists.

“CORA believes in the building of the soft infrastructure of the book industry; the presence and improvement of book reviews in the old and new media, the availability and utility of a functional library system, the efficiency of distribution and the profitability of the vocation of writing,” said Akinosho.

“Since the first edition, the Book Party has become a platform through which the shortlisted writers are engaged in their work by the public,” stated the CORA directorate, which has been a critical partner in the projection of the shortlisted works to the attention of the public. “The book party is a way of ensuring that there’s a robust audience engagement with the books that have been longlisted for this award. A work that makes it to the last 11, is worthy of significant public acknowledgment.”

The party’s special guests are authors of the 11 books longlisted. They include, A Hero’s Welcome (Ndidi Enenmor), Boom, Boom (Jude Idada), Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree (Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani), Double ‘A’ for Adventure (Anisa Daniel-Oniko), Ginika’s Adventures (Nnena Ochiche), Igho Goes to Farm (Anote Ajeluorou), Mystery at Ebenezer’s Lodge (Dunni Olatunde), Obioma: A Girl’s Journey to Self-Discovery (Nkiru Uzoh), She Calls Him Daddy (Oladele Medaiyese), Spurred Surprises (Lami Adejoh Opawale) and The Great Walls of Benin (O. T. Begho).

A shortlist of three is expected in September and the Advisory Board will announce a possible winner in October.

The chairman, panel of judges for this year’s prize is Professor Obodimma Oha, professor of Cultural Semiotics and Stylistics in the Department of English, University of Ibadan. Other members of the panel of judges include Professor Asabe Usman Kabir, professor of Oral and African Literature at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto and Dr. Patrick Oloko, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos Nigeria who specialises in African postcolonial literature, gender, and cultural studies.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has, since 2004, rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2004, poetry), Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto (co-winner, 2004, poetry) for The Dreamer, His Vision; Ahmed Yerima (2005, drama) for his play, Hard Ground; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her book, My Cousin Sammy; Kaine Agary (2008, prose) for her book Yellow Yellow; Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock; Chika Unigwe (2012, prose), with her novel, On Black Sisters Street; Tade Ipadeola (2013, poetry) with his collection of poems, The Sahara Testaments, Professor Sam Ukala (2014, drama) with his play, Iredi War; Seasons of Crimson Blossom, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (2016, prose), The Heresiad, Ikeogu Oke (2017, poetry) and Embers, Soji Cole (2018, drama).

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