NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Sophia Horsfall, has noted that the Nigeria Prize for Literature (NPL) was established to strengthen Nigeria’s culture of reading, critical engagement and creative expression.

She spoke at what has become a literary tradition: the yearly CORA Book Party. NLNG in partnership with The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), hosts the 11 poets longlisted for the book prize. The book soiree provides a platform for the selected poets to present their works, read selected pieces, and engage with readers, critics, journalists, publishers, students, and other members of the literary community.

The 2026 edition of the yearly CORA Book Party held on Sunday, August 2. The party, a literary feast of ideas and life, was launched in 2009 after a review of the first five years of the Prize project.

The longlisted works were selected by the panel of judges appointed for the 2026 edition of the Prize from 223 entries received, following the call for entries announced in February and the close of submissions for the poetry cycle. The longlist marks a key stage in the adjudication process, ahead of the shortlist and the possible announcement of the winner later in the year.

The party featured readings, conversations, and discussions around the works selected for the year’s poetry cycle among other cultural and literary festivities.

Speaking at the Book Party, Horsfall emphasised the importance of sustaining platforms that move literature beyond the page and into public consciousness.

“Through the Book Party, the conversation extends beyond the judges’ table and opens the room for the Literary Community to engage and celebrate the ideas the Longlist of 11 bring to our literary landscape,”she revealed.

“This year, we celebrate poetry, a genre that offers unique creativity. Poetry has the power to distil complex truths into impactful language that capture both the personal and the universal essence with strong visual elements. It gives voice to experiences that might otherwise remain unheard.”

This year’s focus on poetry, she added, celebrates a genre capable of distilling complex truths into powerful language, connecting the personal with the universal and giving voice to experiences that might otherwise remain unheard. Each of these submissions speak to the vitality of Nigerian poetry, and the confidence that Nigerian writers continue to place in the NLNG-sponsored NPL.

She said from the lyrical brilliance of Ezenwa Ohaeto’s Chants of a Minstrel and Gabriel Okara’s The Dreamer, His Vision through Tade Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments, to the philosophical reflections of Ikeogu Oke’s The Heresiad, and the deeply personal, contemporary voice of Romeo Oriogun’s Nomad, “each laureate has enriched our literary heritage and raised the standard for those who follow.”

She concluded, “I hope our young and aspiring writers in this room will leave here encouraged to continue the work for excellence. This event is proof that every celebrated poet once began exactly where you are now, with an idea, a blank page, and the courage to keep writing even when no one was watching. If you do not stop writing, perhaps, you will be the next icon to be celebrated at this event.

If you would recall, the winner of the 2025 edition of this prize was a first-time writer”.
Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), Mr Toyin Akinosho, described the party as a distinctive platform that brings authors into direct conversation with the reading public ahead of the final announcement of the winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literature.

While acknowledging NLNG’s sustained investment in the country’s literary and reading culture, Akinosho commended the company for continuing to support “this yearly afternoon of book conversation and the celebration of this country’s finest authors.”