There was a strong critique of the NLNG Prize for Literature in NEXT newspaper over the weekend.
We agree with most of it. In our view as publishers, the aim and structure of literary prizes such as the NLNG’s should be to sustainably advance the writing career of an author, and to support sales of his or her work, not just reward the writer with a huge sum of money (very huge, in this case). In an environment like Nigeria where there is virtually no distribution for books, the work of the prize may have to include helping to get the books out to the reading public, such as through sponsored book tours.
Read the review here and send in your comments.
2 Responses
I have the same initial feeling: we need more opportunities, and it is painful to have just one winner get such a lifeline, while everybody else goes home with nothing.
I do not think that it is NLNG that must spread the prizes, however. I think there should be MORE, way more, prizes. They should be supported by governments, individuals, corporates, and other bodies, and should have all their many targets and flavours. This way, there isn’t one CORRECT way to write, or one cabal to win win over; there is diversity.
That said, if NLNG can afford four Nigerian Prizes for literature yearly at $100k (one in each of their current categories) why not do it? What is the bottleneck?
Thank you for asking.
Writers need money to survive. Why the bad bele?