In December 2015, celebrated poet, Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, emerged winner of the inaugural Glenna Luschei African Book Prize for his collection of poems titled Through the Window of a Sandcastle. Six months later, the book is at the centre of a laudable initiative by the administrators of the prize, the African Poetry Book Fund, to promote and advance the development of poetry on the continent. The APBF, in a letter to the author, which was made available to our correspondent, announced that unspecified copies of the award-winning book would be sent to its poetry libraries in Ghana, Gambia, Uganda, Botswana and Kenya.
An elated Amu-Nnadi, reacting to this in an interview with our correspondent, says, “I feel quite honoured by this gesture. It is the dream of every writer to find as wide an audience as possible. The Glenna Luschei African Book Prize has actually been a great source of exposure for Through the Window of a Sandcastle. So when I was informed that the book will be published and sent to libraries in five African countries, I was overjoyed. Now I see an opportunity to extend the message in this book to other countries in Africa.”
Noting that the development has challenged him to work harder and to improve on the quality of his writing, the poet, whose previous published works have consistently received some kind of recognition or another, continues, “Winning a literary award presents you to the public in a way that you are not allowed to fall below a certain standard anymore. First, it makes you more popular. Second, it gives you a stronger sense of self-worth or an affirmation that what you are writing is worth it, after all. Also, it ensures that the next poem you write becomes even more tasking.”
Also, commenting on the APBF initiative, fellow poets, Maxim Uzoatu and Toni Kan Onwordi, describe it as a positive step in the right direction. While Uzoatu praises the publishers of Amu-Nnadi poetry book for exposing it to such international literary awards, Onwordi says the plan to distribute copies of the book in libraries across five African countries is not just a good development; it also shows that poetry is alive and well in Africa. “Most people have gravitated towards prose because of the prizes. I guess that it is time for poetry to be given some more recognition. People do not also invest their time and effort in it because it does not sell as much as a novel. You cannot turn a poem into a movie,” Onwordi says.
The award-winning poet is currently working on his next collection of poems entitled A Field of Echoes. The book would have been completed and published in 2014, but it was delayed because the perfectionist in him wanted to be sure that the quality of the poems did not fall below global standards. “I kept going back to every poem, every line and to every image to make sure that I do not fall below what I perceived to have attracted this recognition. But then, it is important to know that one does not really write for prizes. I write primarily to express myself and to send a message to my audience,” Amu-Nnadi says.
According to the author, A Field of Echoes is going to be a very big book of poetry that will contain over 200 poems and over 300 pages. All the poems in the book are new and written just after the publication of Through the Window of a Sandcastle.
Published in 2013 by Parresia’s Origami imprint, Through the Window of a Sandcastle was named on the final shortlist for the 2013 Nigeria Prize for Literature. It also won the prestigious Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Poetry in the same year. Amu-Nnadi’s entry beat others by Senegalese writer, Kadija Sesay and Kobus Moolman of South Africa to clinch the prize.
In a press release published on the APBF website, the winning collection was described as a truly original voice that “creates new metaphors, new spaces of being, and new cartographies of the African soul.” The Glenna Luschei Prize is administered by the African Poetry Book Fund, headquartered at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, USA. The Fund is run by an Editorial Board chaired by international poet and scholar Kwame Dawes. There is also an Advisory Board comprising Laura Sillerman, Glenna Luschei, Suleiman Adebowale, Elizabeth Alexander and Russel Goings.
Copyright PUNCH.
No comments:
Post a Comment