Winner of the 2004 Wole Soyinka prize for literature will go home with $20,000 reward, chairman, Lumina Foundation and Board of the Wole Soyinka Prize, Mrs. Francesca Yetunde Emanuel has said.
Mrs. Francesca Yetunde Emmanuel stated this in Lagos while announcing call for entries for the fifth edition of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature holding on July 5, next year.
According to her, the genre for the 2014 prize is drama, adding that any published play or collection of plays by an author of African descent published within the two years preceding the year of the prize (2012 and 2013) is eligible.
Disclosing that the biennial award organised by Lumina Foundation is getting bigger each year and its standard must be sustained, the Lumina boss called on corporate Nigerians and individuals to give moral and financial support to the sustenance of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.
She said based on the judges’ recommendation, the Board of Trustees of the foundation chose drama for the fifth edition which coincides with Soyinka’s 80th birthday and that is what he is well known for. She hinted that plans are underway to increase the cash prize from $20,000 in next editions.
Mrs. Emanuel explained that each year, starting from next year, the prize will rotate through the following genres, published play or collection of plays by a single author, published collection of poetry by a single author and published novels by a single author.
Also speaking, the founding chairman of the Lumina Foundation and a member of the board, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, said the growth of the WS Prize is not only in quality, but also in scope and scale as it has continued to attract interest from many African countries as the years passes by.
“In the first edition of the Prize, we had 87 entries from eight African countries. This grew to 204 entries from ten African countries in the second edition, and by the third edition we had 336 entries from eleven African countries. In the fourth edition, we had 402 entries from 26 African countries. Thus far, four awards of the prize have been made, with Nigeria winning in the first and second editions, and tying with South Africa in the third while a South African took home the fourth prize,” Ogunbiyi said.
The Judges of the Prize are seasoned intellectuals and critics taken from five African countries which include, Cote D Ivore, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and South Sudan. An overall winner of the award goes home with a princely sum of $20,000USD.
The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature is a biennial award for the best literary work produced by an African, has served as an African equivalent of the Nobel Prize, particularly in recognising and encouraging professional and personal excellence.
