Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...

given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres;

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

and

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

, repeating the cycle every four years. With the total prize value of to individual winner, it is the biggest literary award in Africa and one of the richest literary awards in the world.

History

The Prize was established in 2004 and sponsored by

Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) is a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-producing company and a liquefied natural gas plant on Bonny Island, Nigeria. History Nigeria LNG Limited was incorporated as a limited liability company on 17 May 1989, to produce LNG ...

company. However the process and judging are administered by

Nigerian Academy of Science The Nigerian Academy of Science is the official science academy of Nigeria. The academy of science was established on 18 January 1977, as an association of Nigeria's foremost scientists, but incorporated in 1986. It is the apex scientific organ ...

with advisory board made up of members from Nigeria Academy of Letters and

Association of Nigerian Authors The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is a non-profit organization that promotes Nigerian literature. It represents Nigerian creative writers at home and abroad. It was founded in 1981 by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe as its president. The ...

. The Prize was initially $20,000. This was increased to $30,000 in 2006, and again to $50,000 in 2008. In 2011 the prize was increased to $100,000.

Years with no winner

Since its inception, the award is normally awarded in October. However, for three non-consecutive years, the panel of the judges were unable to reach a conclusion on a winner, which resulted in the prize not being awarded in 2004, 2009 and 2015.

Past recipients

Notes and reference

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nigeria Prize for Literature English-language literary awards Nigerian literary awards Fiction awards Awards established in 2004 Poetry awards Children's literary awards Dramatist and playwright awards 2004 establishments in Nigeria