The Quramo Festival of Words, (QFest2020) climaxed with the unveiling of the winner of the Quramo Writers’ Prize 2020. The prize, which is awarded to the author of an unpublished fiction manuscript, comes with a N1m cash prize and a book publishing contract with Quramo Publishing.
The three day virtual and live literary and artistic excursion which ran from Friday October 2 – Sunday October 4, 2020 featured master classes, book chats, panel discussions and exciting poetry performances.
The winner was picked by a panel of judges made up of A. Igoni Barrett and Molara Wood with Toni Kan as head judge. The announcement was made after a citation of the Top 3 entries were read out.
The 3rd place went to Adeniyi Timilehin for his entry, Unchained which was described by the judges as “a story that riffs on domestic violence as the big theme but there is of course the mental health component.”
The second place went to Aliyu Baba-Ari for his entry The Paths That Take Us which the judges noted is a “beautifully crafted, topical and bloody story. It is Nigeria’s contemporary story writ large and a well told story by a gifted and confident writer.”
The first prize was taken by Kadiri Alex, QWP 2020 for his entry “Sunshower.” In their citation, the judges described Sunshower as “a young man’s coming-of-age story told in the shadow of his mother’s illness as well as his troubled relationship with his father.”
“We consider this entry a beautifully wrought tale told by a gifted story teller with an uncanny facility for words. We believe that our winning entry is a very rewarding read, with a solid conclusion and as such a deserving first place winner.”
Past Winners of the Quramo Writers’ Prize include Samuel Monye, QWP2017, Emmanuel Michael QWP2018 and Vivian Onyekachi Ibe, QWP2019.