…as AWF Nigerian-Ecuadorian Literary competition shortlist emerges
It was a feast of literature and soulful music as premier literary body, Abuja Writers Forum hosted art enthusiasts to the September edition of its flagship Guest Writer Session at Nanet Suites in the Central Business District of Abuja. The programme also featured the announcement of the shortlist of the AWF-Ecuadorian Short Story competition, as well as a talk on an Arts Endowment bill by Senator Shehu Sani of who was Special Guest of Honor.
The premium literary event, which featured two writers, Mike Ekunno and Henry Akubuiro, as well as singer, Sylvia Bethel, saw the writers reading from their literary works. While Ekunno read from his creative non-fiction publication in a US-based magazine, Bridge Eight, Akubuiro read from his novel, Prodigals in Paradise.
In the ensuing interactive session with the packed hall, Ekunno dwelt on the need for Nigerian writers to aim at a global audience because ideas espoused in creative pieces were universal. He lamented the erasure of Internet records of pieces published by Nigeria-based publishers making offshore publication imperative. The award-winning writer had earlier given a talk on crafting creative non-fiction in which he emphasised the necessity for subject matters which, while being personal, resonated with the larger humanity.
Akubuiro, an award-winning literary journalist, after reading from his novel, fielded questions from the appreciative audience. In response to the question on what inspired his novel, Akubuiro said it elements of verisimilitude.
“Prodigals in Paradise is partly experimental in the sense that I once mixed up in a Lagos setting like the one we have in the uncompleted building named Paradise while an undergraduate. It was a place peopled with the downtrodden, who saw the building as a place of refuge. From my observations and interactions with them, I had a background to part of the storyline.
“Above all, the novel has a sense of verisimilitude in the sense that it echoes an everyday reality in an urban city. From the political stasis that give rise to the prodigals in this bizarre paradise to the religious shenanigans where Prophet Job, a dubious man of God, deceives people; to the social contradictions in the society, the work is what anybody can easily relate to.”
The evening’s literary sessions were interspaced with soulful renditions by Sylvia Bethel aka SLAI, a trained classical singer, who kept the hall swinging to her solo pieces.
In between the readings and performance, the President of the forum, Dr. Emman Shehu, announced a shortlist of five writers for the AWF Nigerian-Ecuadorian Short Story competition. The list of the writers includes Tunde Ososanya, Jude Valentine Badaki, Nzube Harry Nlebedim, Blessing Akinsehinwa and Jojo Altine ElHassan.
Dr Shehu announced that the shortlisted works were going to be translated into Spanish as part of an international bi-lingual collection, which is a collaboration between the Ecuadorian embassy and the Abuja Writers’ Forum.
The representative of Kaduna Central Senatorial district at the National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, who was the Guest of Honour at the event, also took time at some point in the programme to decry the slow pace of work on the National Endowment for The Arts and Literature Bill sponsored by him.
In his view, the bill has not seen the light of day yet, because it doesn’t stand to benefit the status quo. He further lamented the dearth of intellectualism in the country evidenced in the shallow speeches of a majority of politicians. Senator Sani praised the Abuja Writers Forum for its commitment to literary growth, noting it as a vital body in the promotion of literature and healthy value reorientation in Nigeria.
The day’s proceedings was co-hosted by the duo of ace television personality, Edith Yassin, and writer-publisher, Su’eddie Vershima Agema and did not end without the writer’s body’s trademark lucky dip for books. Lots of books were given out to members of the audience. The event ended with book signings and group pictures with the featured guest artistes.