Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) on Sunday in Lagos held a book party in honour of the 11 authors shortlisted for the 2016 The Nigeria Prize for Literature.

The book party featured the authors, who participated in person and via Skype, excerpt readings from their books and a question and answer session.

This will be the first public gathering of the writers on the shortlist recently released by the panel of judges led by Prof. Dan Izevbaye, well-respected literary critic and a professor of English Language. Other judges include Professor Asabe Usman Kabir and Professor Isidore Diala, first winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism.

Authors who attended the event include Elnathan John, author of Born On A Tuesday; Aramide Segun, author of Eniitan; Maryam Awaisu, author of Burning Bright; Yejide Kilanko, author of Daughters Who Walk This Path; Ifeoluwa Adeniyi, author of On the Bank of the River; Ifeoma Okoye, author of The Fourth World; Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of Season of Crimson Blossoms; and MansimChumah Okafor, author of The Parable of the Lost Shepherds.

Other authors on the shortlists include Chika Unigwe, winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2012 and writer of Night Dancer; Ogochukwu Promise, author of Sorrow’s Joy; and Sefi Atta, author of A Bit of Difference.

In his welcome remarks, the General Manager of External Relations at NLNG, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, said: “The books on this shortlist depict that hard work and nothing short of the pursuit of excellence drove the writing of books. This makes the competition exciting and less predictable. One thing which will not change, however, is our quest for excellence. I state it here without doubt, that NLNG remains committed to this principle.

“At NLNG, excellence is one of our core values, together with Teamwork, Integrity and Caring, which we owe our success to. We believe that we have a lot of potentials which make us world class and able to compete with the best around the world. That is what we intend to do with writers in Nigeria through The Nigeria Prize for Literature.”

According to the Secretary-General of CORA, Toyin Akinosho, “We at CORA have always felt that books that make it to this level in such a major award system as the Nigeria Prize for Literature, ought to be known in every community in the country. Our ambition is to help that happen; to extend the star attraction of the award winner beyond the Gala Night of the award. We have always maintained that the award is an opportunity for a series of events to really make books look cool; series of book readings and discussions in as many crannies of the country as possible as well as on TV discussions and radio shows,” he said.

The 11 entries were selected out of a total entry of 173 for this year’s round of the prize which focuses on Prose Fiction. The final verdict on the winning entry is expected to be announced in October by NLNG, in commemoration of the company’s first LNG export in 1999.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly among four genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature and comes with a cash award of $100,000.

NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49%), Shell Gas BV, SGBV, (25.6%), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15%), and Eni International (N.A,) N. V. S. a. r. l (10.4%).

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