The Arts-Muse Fair

It was a feast of delicious poetry last Saturday at the weekly meeting of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)   Niger State chapter when the Writers’ group hosted a teen writer from Himma International College, Minna. Zainab Salihu, 17, read her deeply reflective poems with a trenchant voice to the admiration of ANA members.   Prior to her reading at the ANA meeting, her mentor, Mr. Yunusa MC had read her poem entitled ‘ Luck is a fool' at a previous meeting which sparked a wild debate over the deftly worded poem that touched on a highly political theme. This earned her an invitation to come and read her poems to ANA members at the request of Mr. Nurdin Busari the CEO of Amab Books, with a pledge to publish her if she could justify that the writings are original to her. Zainab Salihu at her ANA Niger Reading Well, she came, she read and she won a publishing contract with Amab Books! Upon reciting  only four poems from her collection, she...

The Society of Authors has announced the 2017 shortlist for the Betty Trask Prize and Awards. This year’s shortlist of six debut literary novels by authors under the age of 35 includes Elnathan John’s  Born on a Tuesday  . The judges said of BOAT:  ‘A tough, topical, directly-written book, devoid of sentimentality, and yet engaging, troubling and sad. The sense of place is wholly immersive, conjuring the villages and roads of troubled Nigeria with a deft and effortless touch.’ Elnathan John  Other authors on the shortlist are: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan – Harmless Like You (Sceptre / Hodder & Stoughton), Kathleen Jowitt –  Speak its Name  (self-published), Rob McCarthy –  The Hollow Men  (Mulholland Books / Hodder & Stoughton), Barney Norris –  Five Rivers Meet on a Wooded Plain (Transworld) and Daniel Shand –  Fallow (Sandstone Press Limited).   The judges this year were authors Simon Brett, Michéle Rob...

Etisalat Nigeria will tomorrow 17 May, 2017, hold a training workshop to enhance the skills of budding writers ahead of the call for submission of entries for the 2017 Etisalat Flash Fiction Award. The workshop, scheduled to take place tomorrow at the Etisalat Training Facility in Oriental Hotel Office Complex, Lagos, will be facilitated by Ellah Allfrey an Editor and Patron of Etisalat Prize for Literature and Richard Ali, a Lawyer, Poet and Author. Richard Ali Speaking on the imperative of the workshop, Director, Brands and Experience, Etisalat Nigeria, Elvis Ogiemwanye, said the telco saw the need to organize the training session after the panel of judges for the Etisalat Flash Fiction Award announced that there was no winner for the 2016 Flash Fiction Prize as none of the entries received met the levels of creativity, quality and excellence required for the award of the Prize. “The workshop is our attempt at ensuring that the expectations of the Flash Fict...