Parrésia, also Parrésia Publishers Ltd, is a publishing company in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

founded by Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi and Richard Ali in 2012 with the aim of selling books to the Nigerian reading audience and promote the freedom of the imagination and the free press. It was described in 2017 by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as one of "a handful of influential new publishing houses" in Africa in the last decade.

Character

Parrésia publishes its fiction and creative non-fiction works under four imprints: Parrésia Books, Origami Books, Cordite, and Omode Meta. Parrésia Books is a traditional publishing imprint that publishes five books each year — literary fiction, popular fiction and short-story collections. The Parrésia imprint, being a traditional publisher, offers advances on royalties for first-time authors. All responsibilities are borne by the publisher. Origami Books is a specialised publishing imprint which publishes work in all genres. The author takes full control of the book production process. Cordite Books is a new, traditional-style publishing company for genre fiction based in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria, and is jointly owned by Parrésia Publishers Ltd and Nigerian writer

Helon Habila Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a ...

who is also a professor of Creative Writing at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

in the United States. Habila is the editor for the series. Ọmọde Mẹta is a traditional publishing imprint that publishes children’s books for all children ages and in all genres.

Authors

, winner of the

Caine Prize The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...

and Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Fiction. His novel ''

Oil on Water ''Oil on Water'' is a 2010 petrofiction novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel documents the experience of two journalists as they try to rescue a kidnapped European wife in the oil landscape of the Niger Delta. The novel explores theme ...

'' was shortlisted for the Orion Environmental Book Award and Pen/Opera Book Award in 2012. ''Oil on Water'' was also nominated for the Best Novel Commonwealth Writers' Prize Africa Region in 2011. *

Chika Unigwe Chika Nina Unigwe (born 12 June 1974) is a Nigerian-born Igbo author who writes in English and Dutch. In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent t ...

(winner of NLNG Prize 2012) *

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (born 1979) is a Nigerian writer and journalist. He was described by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as a northern Nigerian "literary provocateur" amidst the international acclaim his award-winning novel ''Season of Crims ...

(winner of LNG Prize 2016 for ''Season of Crimson Blossoms'', published by Parrésia Books in 2015). *

Ogaga Ifowodo Ogaga Ifowodo (born May 14, 1966) is a Nigerian lawyer, scholar, poet, columnist/public commentator and human rights activist. He was awarded the 1998 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, given to writers "anywhere in the world who have ...

, whose poetry collection ''A Good Mourning'' was shortlisted for NLNG Prize in 2017 *

Pius Adesanmi Pius Adebola Adesanmi (27 February 1972 – 10 March 2019) was a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, writer, literary critic, satirist, and columnist. He was the author of '' Naija No Dey Carry Last'', a 2015 collection of satirical essays. Adesan ...

, a Nigerian columnist and professor at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
2006 establishments in Nigeria Book publishing companies of Nigeria