Six categories of prizes will be up for grabs as the Association Nigerian Authors [ANA] announces its 2017 literary competitions. The prizes include:
1. ANA Prize for Poetry (published & unpublished) – N 100,000
2. ANA Prize for Prose Fiction (published & unpublished) – N 100,000
3. ANA Prize for Drama (published & unpublished) – N 100,000
4. ANA Prize for Children’s Literature- 7-13 years age range (Published works only and open to all categories of authors)- N100,0000
5. ANA/ Abubakar Gimba Prize for Fiction (Short Stories Collection-Published) – N200, 000.
6. ANA/Maria Ajima Prize for Literary Criticism (Focus on criticism of emergent Nigerian Literature) – N100, 000
The prizes are open for Nigerian writers, at home and abroad. Works to be entered, said the organisers, should have been published between March 2016 and March 2017. Besides, an entry fee of N3, 000 (per entry) is required for all the prizes except the Teen Authors Prize. The fee is to be paid by the author or the publisher in favour of the association (details are available on ANA’s website).
Required, also, are six copies of the book or manuscript to be entered, specifying the Prize being entered for, alongside a covering letter and the photocopy of the Deposit Slip used in paying for administrative cost, should be sent by post to: The General Secretary, Entrance B, Suite 63, National Theatre Complex, Iganmu, Lagos.
According to ANA, the covering letter should contain accurate contact details of the writer or/and publisher of the work, including email and surface mail addresses and telephone numbers. Multiple entries, where applicable, are allowed but a work must not have been entered for the same prize prior to the present entry and it must have been published between 2016 and 2017.
Besides, the works that are to be submitted in all categories should be original and not recast(s) of already existing works. All submissions are subjected to copyright laws of Nigeria as authors should note that they retain full responsibility for any sort of infringement. Works entered into for ANA prizes are expected to be of the highest language and literary quality.
The deadline for the receipt of all entries is Friday, May 19th, 2017, and there will be no extension of this deadline. A shortlist will be announced in September, 2017. Winners of the prizes, said the organisers will be announced by the judges at the Awards Dinner during the 36th Anniversary International Annual Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors in October, 2017.