The announcement of the winner of the 2017 Nigeria Prize for Literature is very near now. In three short days, the wait will be over and a new winner will be crowned for this year’s Poetry Prize. Last year’s Prize was for Prose Fiction and was won by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim. The prize is worth $100,000.

Winners for the 2017 Prize for Literary Criticism will also be announced on Monday, October 9, 2017.

The writers on this year’s shortlist for the Poetry Prize are Tanure Ojaide (Songs of Myself), Ogaga Ifowodo (A Good Mourning) and Ikeogu Oke (The Heresiad). Since the beginning of this week, I have spoken with each of the writers and posted the interviews here.

Today I want to share videos of the writers reading from their work. For anyone interested in any of the books, you can get them on OkadaBooks.com, Nigeria’s online and mobile bookstore.

Here is Tanure Ojaide reading from his book Songs of Myself.

Here is Ogaga Ifowodo reading from his book A Good Mourning.

Here is Ikeogu Oke reading from his work The Heresiad.

May the best writer win!

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On Sunday, October 8, 2017, do come back to watch the last interview, with Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke who is the General Manager External Relations of the NLNG, on the future of the Nigeria Prize.