Nigerian Students Poetry Prize, an initiative of Poets in Nigeria (PIN), is accepting submissions for the 2022 edition.
The Nigerian Students Poetry Prize aimed at stimulating literary creativity and encouraging critical thinking invites Nigerian undergraduates studying in recognised Nigeria and international tertiary institutions to submit their entries for consideration.
The seventh edition of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize (NSPP) opens for submission between January 15 and March 7, 2022.
Interested Nigerian undergraduates are expected to submit a 30-line poem on any theme of their choice.
An entrant is entitled to a single entry of 30 lines maximum, which must be previously unpublished and written in English. Native terminologies must be translated into English as footnotes.
The organisers say any submission discovered to have defaulted on this rule will be automatically voided.
All entrants are expected to purchase a minimum of one of the six NSPP anthologies uploaded on the submission portal between May 1, 2021, and April 31, 2022 (the last day of submission).
Submissions are to be made at http://nspp.poetsinnigeria.org.ng, strictly adhering to the instructions thereon.
Entrants should write on any theme of their choice while considering its topicality, just as the poems must be the original intellectual property of the entrants.
Reward
Aside from rewarding the prize winners with a total cash prize of ₦500,000, exceptional entrants will each receive a certificate of excellence and a complimentary copy of the NSPP anthology, which features their works.
The statement said: ‘‘The first Prize – ₦200,000, second Prize – ₦150,000, third Prize – ₦75,000. Consolation Prize – ₦25,000 each for fourth, fifth, and sixth-best entrants’’.
Since its inception in 2016 at the University of Ibadan, the organisers have received about 3500 entries from students representing over 100 tertiary institutions (including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, nursing, and seminary schools).
Reputed as the top poetry prize for Nigerian students, the NSPP has awarded N2 million to winning entrants and published 541 poems authored by selected entrants in six anthologies.
They include The Sun Will Rise Again (2016), Mixed History (2017), Deep Dreams (2018, Micah (2019), The House That Built Me (2020), and Portrait of Water (2021).
Notable winners
Notably, tertiary institutions such as the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu and Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Yenagoa hosted the NSPP Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively. The award was held at the University of Ibadan in 2021 while a cash prize of N400,000 was shared among the winners.
Previous grand prize winners of the NSPP include Noah Oladele (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; 2016), Bakre Fadil Adedamola (University of Ibadan; 2017), Godstime Tamunofiri Iberiyenari (Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Yenagoa; 2018), Ogugua Micah Okoye (Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu; 2019), Okwubi Godwin Adah (University of Benin; 2020) and Samuel A. Adeyemi (Federal University, Lokoja; 2021).
