• L- R: Anthonio Okojevoh, Lola Maja, Toni Kan Nkwordi, Mrs. Edna Agusto, Mrs. Akpo Daniyan at the presentation of the 20 finalists of the JLF Writing Competition
Onyinye Ihezukwu, a Theatre Arts graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University was not only excited that she was one of the 20 finalists in a competition for creative writers, but that her short story, ‘Doo’s Room’ which qualified her among 400 entries, has been scheduled to be published in two United Kingdom based magazine.
Her excitement however, according to her would get to a climax if she eventually emerges winner of the competition and walk home with the $1,000 prize money on offer for the best creative writer.
The writing competition being put together by the Jesus Life Foundation (JLF), a non-governmental organisation according to the organisers, was geared towards creating a platform for young writers to be able to express themselves effectively through writing.
Recently at the Lifestyle Book Centre Mall of the Silverbird Galleria, the 20 finalists were officially unveiled, alongside the judges who would be saddled with the task of picking the top three stories in the next five weeks.
One by one, the finalists thrilled fellow contestants, the judges and the audience with a piece from their short stories that earned them a place.
Coordinator of JLF, Antonio Okojevoh expressed optimism that the competition would give a facelift to creative writing in Nigeria as well as give rise to a new breed of movie and music script writers.
“If we have a platform where writers can express themselves in an organised manner; writing books, writing comics, writing lyrics, writing films, you can never tell, an industry can emerge just like we have in Nollywood. So, we are looking at a way of creating a platform where we can encourage young people to write. Look at about a year or two ago, the writers in California went on strike, the industry felt it and that is the strength of creative writing. If you look at our movie industry and the kind of script that comes out, a lot of them are not touched properly; they are wishy-washy; mostly written by the same people, so we want to give a platform for a new breed of writers”, he said.
He also explained that 400 writers send entries from across the nation during the first edition of the competition which ended in May 31 2010.
The writers were expected to file in their stories on various categories including Drama, Romance, Crime, Religion, Science Fiction, Nature and Thriller.
“The first prize winner will go home with $1,000 cash and have an opportunity to write scripts for T.V soap operas and journals. Second and third place winners will each get $500 and $250 cash prizes respectively”, Okojevoh stressed.
According to him, other finalists are also not left out of the largesse, as they also have an opportunity to contribute to local and international monthly magazines and journals.
He noted that all entries will go through three stages: the preliminaries, semi – final and the final by a panel of judges drawn from all walks of life but with a common background as authors.
Amongst the judges are; Akpo Daniyan, a top advertising practitioner and author of; “I Have An Idea”, Chief Executive Officer of Readmanna Limited, Edna Agusto, Beauty Editor of FAB Magazine,Lola Maja as well as renowned writer and journalist, Toni Kan among others.
He expressed optimism that with the right platform, more creative writers in the likes of Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie would emerge and stressed that the competition would also avail contestants the opportunity to interact with established authors as well as publishers.
“A lot of the entries were very good. A lot of them though had language issues, like speaking the past tense in the present tense while a lot of them felt that writing was about speaking big grammar. Most of them do not understand this and they don’t have the platform to learn from other good writers, so this platform would help them know all these. That is why the judges cuts across various individuals who have cut their teeth in publishing including writing short stories, novels and even those in distribution, marketing among others. So they would be able to get professional advice to be able to get it right when they set out to publish their own books,” he stated.
From Daily Independent published on LAST UPDATED AT Thu Aug, 12 2010