KEN EGBAS PRIZE FOR FESTIVAL POETRY (CALABAR 2017) – THE PRIZE WINNERS

KEN EGBAS PRIZE FOR FESTIVAL POETRY (CALABAR 2017) – THE PRIZE WINNERS

KEN EGBAS PRIZE WINNERS

Poets in Nigeria (PIN) & Festival Poetry Foundation (FPF) are pleased to announce the prize winners for the maiden edition of Ken Egbas Prize for Festival Poetry (Calabar 2017) which opened for submissions on 9th October, 2017.

Ridwan Adelaja, a poet and freelance journalist, emerged first with his poem entitled ‘Black Identity’ while Ogwiji Ehi-kowochio Blessing,  a fourth year student of Agriculture at the University of Ibadan, won the 2nd prize with her poem entitled ‘A Letter to Dawn’. Aire Joshua Omotayo, a student of Computer Science at the University of Ibadan, clinched the 3rd prize with his poem entitled ‘A Verse for my Country’.

While making available the final result, the Chief Judge, Kukogho Iruesiri Samson remarked thus: “Judging these poems and selecting just three winners was a strenuous task, especially considering the quality of entries and the fact that every single one of them had very good points and some weakness. While I congratulate the winners, it is pertinent to let them know that they clinched the top spots, not only because their poems were remarkably better than the others, but because they paid more attention to detail. Some poems suffered from poor openers, poor closures, poor linking of metaphors, irregular punctuation, lack of form and in some cases, verbose language. Therefore, I will advise each entrant to take a second look and consider themselves champions by default, whether or not they came top in the contest. To write is to win!”

The initiative, an offshoot of the annually organized Festival Poetry Calabar, was launched in 2016 via an address by Dr. Ken Egbas wherein he pledged the sum of ₦500,000 for the sponsorship of the prize for a 5-year period. Authors of winning entries will be awarded a total cash prize of ₦70,000 at the 3rd edition of Festival Poetry Calabar holding from 21st – 23rd December, 2017.


Kolade Olanrewaju Freedom

For: PIN & FPF

Leave a Reply