Sola Osofisan
01-19-2009, 07:58 PM
AWF Announces First Quarter Events
After a lull in activities for the end of year festivities, the Abuja Writers¢ Forum (AWF) is set to commence activities for 2009, with a couple of events for the first quarter.
The Guest Writer Session, which last year featured established and emerging writers from within and outside Abuja, continues in the same pattern. First will be Elnathan John who launched his collection of short stories, Daydreams Etcetera late last year. He will be at the regular venue of the event, Pen and Pages Bookstore on January 31, 2009.
Lagos-based poetess and freelance arts writer, Jumoke Verissimo, who also made a publishing debut last year with her collection of poems I Am Memory is slated for February 28. On March 28, Maiduguri-based scholar and writer, Musa Idris Okpanachi will read from his award-winning poetry collection, The Eaters of the Living. Emeka Agbayi , author of Stars Die and Four Serenades, will briefly leave Lagos and take on the Abuja audience on April 28.
The Guest Writer Sessions have been created by the Abuja Writers¢ Forum to improve interaction between writers and literary enthusiasts, and boost better publicity and distribution for writers¢ works.
The event takes place on the last Saturday of the month by 4pm at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, 79 Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Wuse 2, Abuja and features side attractions of live music, performance poetry and art exhibition. The books of the guest writers are also on sale at Pen and Pages Bookstore and at Sam¢s Garden, Jimmy Carter Crescent, off Protea Hotel, Asokoro where AWF holds weekly reading and critique sessions.
Another major event for the quarter is the AWF contests for writers and scholars for which there will be prizes. The literary prizes are the Cyprian Ekwensi Prize for Short Stories endowed by Emzor Pharmaceuticals; the Mamman Vatsa Prize for Poetry in Pidgin English sponsored by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC); the Zulu Sofola Prize for Drama; and the T. M. Aluko Prize for a first work of fiction.
Those for literary criticism are the Professor Oyin Ogunba Prize for Literary Criticism in Drama, whose sponsor is the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Ibrahim Nasir Arab; the Professor Ime Ikiddeh Prize for Literary Criticism in Fiction, endowed by the Akwa Ibom State government; and, the Professor Donatus Nwoga Prize for Literary Criticism in Poetry.
Arrangements are also being finalised for the maiden Abuja Season of Plays which will also take off during the first quarter.
The Abuja Writers¢ Forum which came into existence in June 2008 is focused on providing interventions that would improve on the production of Nigerian Literature. The maiden edition of its international journal of writing, criticism and art, CAVALCADE is now available and features interviews, reviews, short stories, and poems. The critical essays focus on Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo, a major 20th century poet.
Abdullahi Abubakar,
Public Relations Officer (PRO),
Abuja Writers¢ Forum (AWF),
Abuja
08034519159
abujawriters@fastermail.com
After a lull in activities for the end of year festivities, the Abuja Writers¢ Forum (AWF) is set to commence activities for 2009, with a couple of events for the first quarter.
The Guest Writer Session, which last year featured established and emerging writers from within and outside Abuja, continues in the same pattern. First will be Elnathan John who launched his collection of short stories, Daydreams Etcetera late last year. He will be at the regular venue of the event, Pen and Pages Bookstore on January 31, 2009.
Lagos-based poetess and freelance arts writer, Jumoke Verissimo, who also made a publishing debut last year with her collection of poems I Am Memory is slated for February 28. On March 28, Maiduguri-based scholar and writer, Musa Idris Okpanachi will read from his award-winning poetry collection, The Eaters of the Living. Emeka Agbayi , author of Stars Die and Four Serenades, will briefly leave Lagos and take on the Abuja audience on April 28.
The Guest Writer Sessions have been created by the Abuja Writers¢ Forum to improve interaction between writers and literary enthusiasts, and boost better publicity and distribution for writers¢ works.
The event takes place on the last Saturday of the month by 4pm at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, 79 Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Wuse 2, Abuja and features side attractions of live music, performance poetry and art exhibition. The books of the guest writers are also on sale at Pen and Pages Bookstore and at Sam¢s Garden, Jimmy Carter Crescent, off Protea Hotel, Asokoro where AWF holds weekly reading and critique sessions.
Another major event for the quarter is the AWF contests for writers and scholars for which there will be prizes. The literary prizes are the Cyprian Ekwensi Prize for Short Stories endowed by Emzor Pharmaceuticals; the Mamman Vatsa Prize for Poetry in Pidgin English sponsored by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC); the Zulu Sofola Prize for Drama; and the T. M. Aluko Prize for a first work of fiction.
Those for literary criticism are the Professor Oyin Ogunba Prize for Literary Criticism in Drama, whose sponsor is the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Ibrahim Nasir Arab; the Professor Ime Ikiddeh Prize for Literary Criticism in Fiction, endowed by the Akwa Ibom State government; and, the Professor Donatus Nwoga Prize for Literary Criticism in Poetry.
Arrangements are also being finalised for the maiden Abuja Season of Plays which will also take off during the first quarter.
The Abuja Writers¢ Forum which came into existence in June 2008 is focused on providing interventions that would improve on the production of Nigerian Literature. The maiden edition of its international journal of writing, criticism and art, CAVALCADE is now available and features interviews, reviews, short stories, and poems. The critical essays focus on Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo, a major 20th century poet.
Abdullahi Abubakar,
Public Relations Officer (PRO),
Abuja Writers¢ Forum (AWF),
Abuja
08034519159
abujawriters@fastermail.com