Guidelines for Submissions of Entries to Writivism 2016

Prizes

Short Story Prize

Guidelines for submission for the 2016 prize were announced on January 30, 2016 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Find them here in English and French. Deadline for receiving entries is March 31, 2016. Prize amount is $400, all shortlisted writers travel to Kampala for the annual Writivism Festivalplus receive $100 and all longlisted stories are published in our annual anthology.

The Koffi Addo Prize for Non Fiction 

Guidelines for submission for the inaugural prize were announced on March 8, 2016 in Accra, Ghana. Find them here. The deadline for submitting entries is April 30, 2016. Prize amount is $500, all shortlisted writers will be invited to a festival in Accra, Ghana and their essays/articles/stories will be published in our annual anthology.

The Abena Korantemaa Oral History Prize

Guidelines for submission for the inaugural prize were announced on March 8, 2016 in Accra, Ghana. Find them here. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2016. The prize amount is $500, all shortlisted storytellers will be invited to a festival in Accra, Ghana and transcripts of shortlisted stories will be published in our annual anthology.

Poetry Prize

Guidelines for submission for the inaugural prize will be announced on April 15, 2016 in Kampala, Uganda. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2016. The prize amount is $500, shortlisted poets may be invited to the annual Writivism Festival in Kampala, Uganda and poems may be published in our annual anthology.

Past Winners

2015: Pemi Aguda (Nigeria) with Caterer, Caterer

2014: Saaleha Idrees Bamjee (South Africa) with Out of the Blue

2013: Anthea Paelo (Uganda) with Picture Frames

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Short Story Becomes the Single Most Translated Work in the History of African Writing

The Kenyan author’s story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright is ‘the single most transla

ted short story in the history of African writing’

A fable by the major Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has been translated into over 30 languages, making it “the single most translated short story in the history of African writing”, according to its publisher.

Pan-African writers’ collective Jalada Africa released its latest issue, focusing on translation, last week. It includes Ngũgĩ’s story Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ: Kana Kĩrĩa Gĩtũmaga Andũ Mathiĩ Marũngiĩ, which the award-winning author originally wrote in Kikuyu, a Kenyan language, and then translated himself into English asThe Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright. The fable tells the story of how “a long time ago humans used to walk on legs and arms, just like all the other four limbed creatures”, but how “their rhythm and seamless coordination made the other parts [of the body] green with envy”, and “they started plotting against the two pairs”.

Jalada says it worked with translators of “all levels of experience, from a recent high school graduate to distinguished professors”, to pull together its huge range of translations of Ngũgĩ’s story, which is available in Amharic, Dholuo, Kamba, Lwisukha (Luhya), Kipsigis, Kinyarwanda, French, Arabic, Luganda, Kiswahili, Afrikaans, Hausa, Meru, Lingala, IsiZulu, Igbo, Ibibio, isiNdebele, XiTsonga, Nandi (Kalenjin), Rukiga, Bamanankan, Lugbara, Lubukusu, Kimaragoli, Giriama, Sheng, Ewe, and Naija Langwej. It is now looking for writers and volunteers to volunteer translations in further languages.

Ngũgĩ said the project would “empower Africa by making Africans own their resources from languages – making dreams with our languages – to other natural resources – making things with them, consuming some, exchanging some.”

There are millions of speakers in African languages and not many writers in African languages. Why? Can this be changed?

Jalada Africa

“The moment we lost our languages was also the moment we lost our bodies, our gold, diamonds, copper, coffee, tea. The moment we accepted (or being made to accept) that we could not do things with our languages was the moment we accepted that we could not make things with our vast resources,” said the novelist and playwright.

Jalada is now planning to periodically publish a Translation Issue featuring a previously unpublished story, which it will ask writers and translators to translate into their own African language. Its ultimate goal is to translate each story into 2,000 African languages.

“Despite long-running conversations on the need for publishing in indigenous languages on the African continent over the past five decades, writing and translations remain minimal and the little that exists continues to rapidly decline,” said the writers’ collective. “There are millions of speakers in African languages and not many writers in African languages. Why? Can this be changed?”

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Managing editor Moses Kilolo, in an introduction to the issue, said that Ngũgĩ was “uniquely placed to be the first distinguished author and intellectual featured in our periodical Translations Issue” as he “has, for many years, been the most vocal proponent in publishing in African languages”. Kilolo said that the story itself was “a reminder that we are one, and that in our togetherness we have the power to transform the future that we hope for ourselves”.

“For many of these translations, Jalada was very fortunate to find willing editors with considerable orthographical knowledge of their language’s textual application. In most cases, translations were further read by native speakers to ensure fidelity to the original piece. Although deeply rewarding, none of this was easy, and this Translation Issue is the fruit of many months of hard work and collaboration, multiple deadlines and setbacks,” Kilolo writes.

“Like all art, there will be growth from these humble contributions in which we take immense pride, to a future literary landscape of beautiful constructions that will be definitive of each African language. Jalada has come to be Africa’s literary melting pot where we meet in a blend of the Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone expectations over a distinctively African base.”

Culled from the The Guardian

THE PEOPLE’S COURT, THE PEOPLE’S WILL

Playwright: Lanre Quadri

Published: 2013

Page: 40 pages

Title: The Indictment

Publisher: iGod Books

Reviewer: Olutayo Irantiola

The opening of this book is with a poem by the poet-playwright, Lanre Quadri, who defined stealing and governance according to the happenings within Nigeria and Africa at large. According to the playwright, stealing is a crime committed by ‘no-man’ but governance is when political officeholders take from the ‘Commonwealth’. As for me the critic, I am opening this review with a commendation that this play is written like a script ready for a screenplay. Many a times, playwright does not publish like this.

This play is a one-scene satire interspersed with drum to signify change in direction of the play. The play is modelled after the Epic Theatre proposed by Bertolt Brecht. The play opened up by the director who spoke the evident spate of corruption in the nation but seeking for volunteers who were the cast in the play. However, this play touches on all areas of governance in Nigeria and Africa.

Fiston Mujila, author of Tram83, Wins Etisalat Prize for Literature 2015

Fiston Mujila, author of Tram83 has been announced as the winner of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature this evening in  Lagos at a well - attended colourful ceremony.

Mujila was at Durban earlier in the for the Time of the Writer Festival before coming to Lagos, Nigeria for the prize announcement of the Etisalat Prize for Literature today.

The book is about two friends, one a budding writer home from Europe, the other an ambitious racketeer, meet in the only nightclub, the Tram 83, in a wartorn city-state in secession, surrounded by profit-seekers of all languages and nationalities. Tram 83 plunges the reader into the modern African gold rush as cynical as it is comic and colorfully exotic, using jazz rhythms to weave a tale of human relationships in a world that has become a global village.

Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, where he went to a Catholic school before studying Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. He now lives in Graz, Austria, and is pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages. His writing has been awarded with numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal at the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut as well as the Best Text for Theater (“Preis für das beste Stück,” State Theater, Mainz) in 2010. His poems, prose works, and plays are reactions to the political turbulence that has come in the wake of the independence of the Congo and its effect on day-to-day life. 

As he describes in one of his poems, his texts describe a “geography of hunger”: hunger for peace, freedom, and bread. Tram 83, written in French and published in August 2014 as a lead title of the rentrée littéraire by Éditions Métailié, is his first novel. It has been shortlisted and won numerous literary prizes in France, Austria, England, and the United States.

Roland Glasser is the translator of the work into English from French. He also translates art, travel, and assorted non-fiction. He studied theatre, cinema, and art history in the UK and France, and has worked extensively in the performing arts, chiefly as a lighting designer. He is a French Voices and PEN Translates award winner and serves on the Committee of the UK Translators Association. Having lived in Paris for many years, he is currently based in London.

Artmosphere To Host Niran Okewole at University College Hospital Tomorrow

Artmosphere in collaboration with Quills Club UCH will be hosting Niran Okewole on his latest anthology titled 'The Hate Artist', at the Alexander Brown Hall, University College Hospital by 3pm, Nigerian Time.

The anthology is his new addition to the nation's literary oeuvre is The Hate Artist. A collection of poems described as profound, amplifying the hidden histories of places, cultures and encounters as well as a genuine treatise on art and artistic duty.

Artmosphere is curated by Fairchild Media, a creative enterprise with interest in content, conversations, literature and avantgarde ideas.

Niran Okewole is a psychiatrist and writer. He is He studied Medicine at the University of Ibadan. He is the author of the collection of poems, Logarythms (2005) and plays, The Watchman Trilogy (2005). He won the Muson festival poetry prize in 2002 and 2003. Niran Okewole also won Sawubona Musicjam/Berlin Festival poetry prize in 2008

The Public Presentation of 'The Quest For The Gem Of Arubia' billed for April 28 2016

Albinos are being celebrated through 'The Quest For The Gem Of Arubia' the highly anticipated children’s fantasy book by top movie critic, Entertainment lawyer and lead Film Adaptation campaigner in Nigeria, Augusta.M.Okon published by wicecom publishers in Ibadan

The beautifully crafted African story which tackles issues faced by the ‘Child Albino’ is spun around riddles, thrives in locations that indeed would trigger off one’s imagination and set the young minds on course for an exciting adventure. Even adults will find this to be a reading delight.

According to Augusta Okon “Albinism is a big problem in certain parts of Africa and I’m indeed elated that the African child and indeed those around the world, can step into the world of fantasy with this book and embark on a journey that would keep them engaged from start to finish. It will help these young minds understand what their counterparts who are albinos are facing and instill that care and tenderness towards them. It also encourages those with low self-esteem tagged as ‘the rejects’ who society believes nothing good can come out of them to rise up and achieve their dreams. It will inspire children all over the world and is certainly worth reading.”

The Quest For The Gem Of Arubia will be released to the public on April 28th 2016 at the Goeth Institut, City Hall, Lagos, Nigeria

Babishai 2016 Poetry Award Second Category

An Excerpt from the novel: Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila

This is an excerpt from Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, which is shortlisted for the soon-to-be-announced Etisalat Prize for Literature and was recently longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize

Mujila, who hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be in Durban next week for the Time of the Writer Festival, along with his fellow Etisalat shortlistees Penny Busetto and Rehana Rossouw. The trio will then head off to Lagos, Nigeria for theprize announcement on Saturday, 19 March.

Tram 83 was originally published in French, and was translated by Roland Glasser, winning a 2015 PEN Translates Award. The French original was a French Voices 2014 grant recipient and won the Grand Prix du Premier Roman des SGDL, and wasshortlisted for numerous other awards, including the Prix du Monde.

About the book

Two friends, one a budding writer home from Europe, the other an ambitious racketeer, meet in the only nightclub, the Tram 83, in a wartorn city-state in secession, surrounded by profit-seekers of all languages and nationalities. Tram 83 plunges the reader into the modern African gold rush as cynical as it is comic and colorfully exotic, using jazz rhythms to weave a tale of human relationships in a world that has become a global village.

About the author

Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, where he went to a Catholic school before studying Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. He now lives in Graz, Austria, and is pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages. His writing has been awarded with numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal at the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut as well as the Best Text for Theater (“Preis für das beste Stück,” State Theater, Mainz) in 2010. His poems, prose works, and plays are reactions to the political turbulence that has come in the wake of the independence of the Congo and its effect on day-to-day life. As he describes in one of his poems, his texts describe a “geography of hunger”: hunger for peace, freedom, and bread. Tram 83, written in French and published in August 2014 as a lead title of the rentrée littéraire by Éditions Métailié, is his first novel. It has been shortlisted and won numerous literary prizes in France, Austria, England, and the United States.

About the translater

Roland Glasser translates literary and genre fiction from French, as well as art, travel, and assorted non-fiction. He studied theatre, cinema, and art history in the UK and France, and has worked extensively in the performing arts, chiefly as a lighting designer. He is a French Voices and PEN Translates award winner and serves on the Committee of the UK Translators Association. Having lived in Paris for many years, he is currently based in London.

Read an excerpt from Tram 83, courtesy of Etisalat:

In the beginning was the stone, and the stone prompted ownership, and ownership a rush, and the rush brought an influx of men of diverse appearance who built railroads through the rock, forged a life of palm wine, and devised a system, a mixture of mining and trading.

Northern Station. Friday. Around seven or nine in the evening. “Patience, friend, you know full well our trains have lost all sense of time.”

The Northern Station was going to the dogs. It was essentially an unfinished metal structure, gutted by artillery, train tracks, and locomotives that called to mind the railroad built by Stanley, cassava fields, cut-rate hotels, greasy spoons, bordellos, Pentecostal churches, bakeries, and noise engineered by men of all generations and nationalities combined.

It was the only place on earth you could hang yourself, defecate, blaspheme, fall into infatuation, and thieve without regard to prying eyes. Indeed, an air of connivance hung ever about the place. Jackals don’t eat jackals. They pounce on the turkeys and partridges, and devour them. According to the fickle but ever-recurring legend, the seeds of all resistance movements, all wars of liberation, sprouted at the station, between two locomotives. And as if that weren’t enough, the same legend claims that the building of the railroad resulted in numerous deaths attributed to tropical diseases, technical blunders, the poor working conditions imposed by the colonial authorities – in short, all the usual clichés.

Northern Station. Friday. Around seven or nine.

He’d been there nearly three hours, jostling with the passers-by as he waited for the train to arrive. Lucien had been at pains to insist on the sense of time, and on these trains that broke all records of derailment, delay, and overcrowding. Requiem had better things to do than wait for this individual who, with the passing of the years, had lost all importance in his eyes. Ever since he’d turned his back on Marxism, Requiem called everyone who deprived him of his freedom of thought and action armchair communists and slum ideologues. He had merchandise to deliver, his life depended on it. But the train carrying that son of a bitch Lucien was dragging its wheels.

Northern Station. Friday. Around…

“Would you care for some company, sir?”

A girl, dressed for a Friday night in a station whose metal structure is unfinished, had come up to him. A moment to size up the merchandise, a dull thud, a racket that marked the entrance of the beast.

“Do you have the time, citizen?”

He had adequately assayed the chick and even imagined her lying on her mean little bed, despite the half-light. He pulled her body against his, asked her name, “Call me Requiem,” stroked his fingers across the young creature’s breasts, then another line: “Your thighs have the allure of a vodka bottle…” before disappearing into the murky gloom of the slimy, sticky crowd.

Culled from http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2016/03/11/read-an-excerpt-from-the-novel-everybody-is-talking-about-tram-83-by-fiston-mwanza-mujila/ 

Submission of Entires for the 2016 Babishai Poetry Awards

Announcing 

In a press release sent to Praxis Magazine, the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation – organizers of the annual Babishai Poetry festival in Uganda – announced the launch of 2016 Babishai Poetry Awards.

Find below details for the twin awards along with profiles of the judges:

CATEGORY 1 – THE BABISHAIKU POETRY AWARDS

Guidelines for submissions:

• “We are looking forward to Africa themed haiku i.e. haiku about African sights and sounds. Haiku must contain clear images, settings and juxtaposition. Haiku must be concise and as brief as possible (though 17 syllable haiku are welcome).
• In short, we encourage experimental haiku and but submissions should be three- line haiku structure or form. Please note one single haiku cannot contain all the highlighted features above, and hence are to be used as mere guidelines.
• It is open to ALL African poets (LIVING IN AFRICA), who will not have published a full-length collection of poetry by May 2016
• Submissions should be original, in English. Submit using Times New Roman, single-spaced and size 12.
• Send the three Haikus to bnpa2016@babishainiwe.com as a word attachment. Include the poem’s title on the poem but DO NOT include your name or contact details on the haiku itself
• If you submit in this category, you are not eligible to submit for the second category of the Babishai Poetry Award
• The subject line should read, BABISHAIKU 2016
• Include your name, email address, country or birth and country of permanent residence, telephone number and the titles of your poems in the body of the email
• The submissions will be accepted from February 29th 2016 to May 22nd 2016
• The long-list will be announced by July 2016
• More details on the face book page, Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, on Twitter @BNPoetryAward and the website, www.babishainiwe.com
• The top three winners will receive 150 USD each and participate in the 2016 Babishaiku mentorship programme
THE JUDGES
The chief judge of the #Babishaiku 2016 Competition is:-

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Chief judge, Babishai Poetry Awards

Adjei Agyei-Baah is the co-founder of Africa Haiku Network and Poetry Foundation Ghana. He also doubles as the co-editor of “The Mamba”, the official haiku journal of Africa Haiku Network. He holds MA. TESL (Teaching English As A Second Language) and MBA in Strategic Management and Business Consulting from University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Business respectively. He currently teaches English language and Literature in English as a part-timer at University of Ghana Distance Learning Center, Kumasi Campus and Ghana Baptist University College, Kumasi. Adjei is an inventor and a champion of “Afriku” (African Haiku) – an avant-garde haiku type that focuses on the unique images, sounds and settings of Africa. He is a widely anthologized poet both at home and abroad, and have written and presented eulogies such as“ Ashanti” and “In the Grey Hair of Soyinka” to King of Ashanti, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, and Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize laureate respectively. And his all-time favorite piece “For the Mountains,” was selected by BBC to represent Ghana (in a poetry postcard project) in the last Commonwealth Games held at Glasgow, Scotland, 2014.

In the haiku circles, his works have appeared in reputable journals and literary websites such as Shamrock, Akita Haiku International Haiku Network, The Heron’s Nest, Cattails, Acorn, Frog pond, World Haiku Review, , A Hundred Gourds, Brass Bell Haiku Journal, Asahi Haikuist Network, Yay Words, Indian Haiku Kukai, Mainchini Daily, Presence, European Kukai Kai, Africa Haiku Network, Wild Plum, Prune Juice, Boston Poetry Magazines, Poetry Space-UK, Poetry Foundation Ghana, The Kalahari Review, Luminary Review etc. Besides, some of his published African haiku (which he pursues as a specialty) have received honorable mention from the desk of reputable editors and judges from Cattails, World Haiku Review and 4th Japan-Russia Haiku Contest, 2015 and with others translated and recorded into music.

He is a member of Haiku Northwest, United States and United Haiku and Tanka Association (UHTS), United States and currently been mentoring young Africa poets who have interest in haiku with his African brother and partner, Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian with their new founded organization (Africa Haiku Network), with its core mission of promoting haiku across the Africa continent.

Adjei in his career as a teacher has acted as a poetry judge on many senior high school poetry and spoken word contests and his latest in similar role was the guest poet at Carpe Diem Haiku Kukai for the month of August, 2015.Adjei is the Winner of Akita Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Award, 3rd Japan-Russia Haiku Contest, 2014 and look forward to more laurel in the haiku/ Afriku field which has become so addicted beyond redemption. Adjei launches his two maiden collections “Afriku “-Haiku & Senryu from Ghana (Red Moon Press, 2016) and Embers of Fireflies (Author House, 2016) this year

CATEGORY 2

BABISHAI 2016 POETRY AWARD SECOND CATEGORY

Guidelines for submissions:-
• It is open to ALL African poets (living anywhere in the world), who will not have published a full-length collection of poetry by May 2016
• Submissions should be original, in English and not more than 40 lines each. Submit using Times New Roman, single-spaced and size 12. Local languages are accepted only if English translations are sent alongside them
• Send three poems to bnpa2016@babishainiwe.com as a word attachment. Include the poem’s title on the poem but DO NOT include your name or contact details on the poem itself
• The subject line should read, BNPA 2016
• Include your name, email address, country or birth and country of permanent residence, telephone number and the titles of your poems in the body of the email
• The submissions will be accepted from February 29th 2016 to May 22nd 2016
• There is no theme, be as creative as possible
• If you submit in this category, you are not eligible for the Babishaiku Award
• The long-list will be announced by July 2016
• More details on the face book page, Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, on Twitter @BNPoetryAward and the website, www.babishainiwe.com
• The top two winners will receive 700 USD and 300 USD respectively
• The top ten will be part of the 2016 Babishai mentorship programme and participate in various festivals across the world
There will be an entire panel of judges for this category, led by Stephen Partington and Isaac Tibasiima. In a few days, we’ll have a Q and A with the entire panel, their expectations and so on.

Stephen Derwent Partington, lead panelist, Babishai Poetry Awards

Poetry is his primary hobby and passion. He began to write poetry at school. He describes his poetry as accessible. His early writing was full of Modernist allusions and foreign languages, but as he accessed more contemporary poetry this disappeared.

He’d probably also describe it as hybrid in the sense that while he has sought to fit into the Kenyan (and wider African) traditions of broadly Anglophone verse, lots of influences from his pre-Kenya days remain. He has been published widely in various anthologies and also, published in; . Two collections, one in Kenya (SMS and Face to Face) and one from the UK (How to Euthanise a Cactus).

Isaac Tibasiima, panelist, Babishai Poetry Awards

Isaac Tibasiima is a Doctoral Researcher and Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Makerere University. He has previously taught in the Department of Languages at Uganda Martyrs University. His research interests are in oral and written African Poetry in general and Ugandan poetry in particular. He is also interested in researching Competition Music Performance and how this especially is a portrayal of a performance of power, national identity and regionalism in Eastern Africa. Currently, he teaches on the Oral Literature research project at Makerere University. Isaac is a writer, especially of poetry and believes poetry should speak to the soul and have a changing role in mankind and society, leaving them better than before. He believes in experimenting with voices because this gives poetry its unique taste of reality and gives poets the chance to do what Plato hated the most about poetry: to be impersonators. Isaac loves reading, especially contemporary African writing and teaching is a passion he has had since his primary school days.

His main aim as a teacher and researcher is to leave a very strongly positive mark on not just around him but the whole of humanity.

For any inquiry, email babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com

Culled from http://www.praxismagonline.com/babishai-poetry-awards/

Line Up of Activities for Writing on the Wall Festival 2016 Announced

A full programme of events for this year’s WoWFest has been announced. Dave Gibbons, Isy Suttie, and Holly McNish are some of the authors, writers and performers heading to the event when it returns to the city in May.

Now into its 17th year, WoWFest is the longest running literature festival in Liverpool and is an important part of the cultural landscape of the North West, welcoming a host of local, national and international writers to the city.

The month-long festival will deliver 29 events, exploring the future, past and present through sci-fi, super heroes, graphic novels and comic books.

This year’s programme of events include a gender identity debate led by transgender teenager fiction author Juno Dawson, a ranting poetry event ‘Stand Up and Spit – Speaking Volumes’ and a 10th anniversary special of the festival’s Pulp Idol competition.

Co-director of Writing on the Wall, Mike Morris says: “This is a new adventure for Writing on the Wall, our own journey into new areas of writing and literature with some really exciting new projects with school pupils and young people.

“We’re excited to bring to Liverpool some of the biggest names and best writers and artists – novelists, graphic novelists, illustrators and actors – an excellent array of diverse talent, one of the hallmarks of Writing on the Wall.”

Culled from- http://www.yourmovemagazine.com/full-line-up-announced-for-writing-on-the-wall-festival-2016/13791#sthash.FNWOroip.dpuf

March 31st 2016 is the deadline for the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition.

Do you have a brilliant idea for a book, but keep putting off writing it?

Good Housekeeping, book publishers Orion and literary agent Luigi Bonomi are looking for a reader whose first novel deserves to be read. We’re after someone who has never had their work published and has no literary agent.

Entries should be in the crime/thriller and women’s fiction genres. First prize is a £10,000 advance and the chance to see your book in print!

A shortlist of 10 writers will spend a day with Orion Books and Luigi, taking part in workshops and getting feedback on their submitted chapters. There are also three Acer Switch laptops for runners-up.

WHAT TO SEND
Send us a full synopsis of your story (no more than two sheets of A4 paper); 5,000 words of your novel (crime/thriller or women's fiction); a 100-word mini biography of yourself. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your work must be original unpublished work.

TO
Good Housekeeping Novel Competition, Orion Books, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ

WHEN
Entries to arrive by 31 March 2016.

Terms and conditions
*Open to UK entrants aged 18 and over. *The book must be fiction in the crime/thriller or women’s fiction genres. *The competition is open to entrants who have never had a novel (including their entry) published by a publishing company and who are not already signed to a literary agent. *Entrants can have been self-published but must own the rights to their entry. *Only one entry is permitted per person. *Please enclose a printed version of your entry, printed double-spaced in 12pt type on A4 paper, along with the entry form above. We can’t accept entries submitted by email (except residents of Northern Ireland who may email their entry to goodh.mail@hearst.co.uk) and we’re unable to return manuscripts. *All entries must be received by 31 March 2016. *The prize is: £10,000 advance; publication of winning novel upon its completion; and an introduction to top literary agent Luigi Bonomi. There is no cash alternative to the prize. *The winner will be notified by 30 June 2016. *Winners must agree to be interviewed for a feature and for an extract of their novel to be published in Good Housekeeping. *Hearst Magazines UK reserves the right not to award the prize if we do not receive any entries of a publishable standard. *The judging panel’s decision is final.

Culled from- http://paulmcveigh.blogspot.com.ng/2016/02/good-housekeepings-novel-competition.html

IDOWU ADEDAYO: HERALDING THE GOSPEL WITH POETRY

IDOWU ADEDAYO: HERALDING THE GOSPEL WITH POETRY

Artiste: Adedayo Idowu

Number of Tracks: 5

Year of Release: 2016

Reviewer: Olutayo IRANTIOLA

There is a general misconception that there are some vocabularies in English that cannot be translated or transliterated into Yoruba. This was one of the things addressed by Adedayo Idowu in his new work titled Konkonboto which he translated as the Gargantuan Genre.

Adedayo Idowu has evolved with time because the opening track of the album has a contemporary tune with a slight blend of rap. The track, ‘Ori Mi ko Buru’ is a song of thanksgiving that God has prevailed in his life and that has not given the enemy an opportunity. The poet cum singer was also optimistic of his ascension with Jesus at his appearance and he urged all those who want to reign with Jesus to accept him and eschew sin.

The second track which is 18 minutes long is an exposition on the happenings in the church. He made a reference to the past album titled ‘Ara Jesu ko ya’. In the track, he made it known that his song is used to address the decadence in the church. As a Yoruba man, he described the church as ‘a rotten orange’. The role that the church is expected to play in the society has been corrupted. The track makes reference to the Bible when Jesus sent out money changers in Mark 11:15. There are different analogies of the atrocities committed by Men of God.  He rightly described that many followers of the ‘devilish’ ministers do not equally want the truth. He believed that the actual men of God will be known by their deeds.  The poet gave a vivid description of the qualifications of a minister of God as written in the book of I Timothy, Chapter Three.  Other atrocities committed in the church include abortion, adultery etc. He lampooned the denominational segregation; he explained it in English, thus:

‘ Jesus Christ has nominated us for Heaven but we are denominating ourselves. Hence, we have innumerable denominations and the spirit of denominationalism has demoralized the church.

Therefore, the church is critically sick and is drastically dying. Oh! Lord save the church’

He went to explain the trend of Pentecostalism that can be called Pente-rascalism. According to him, anointing oil as written in the Bible was used just twice for healing. The church is being humiliated because of the glory attributed to the ministers.

The third track is a contemporary Apala gospel titled, Eni Taye Ye Lo Datunbi. This track is a reminder of the need to be born again and concentrate on making heaven. He mentioned that his joy is filled whenever he is in the house of the Lord which is in tandem with the words of David in Psalms 122:1. As for the poet, there is no reason to be enticed for material gains. He noted that the stings of sin are very disastrous; he mentioned different sins and Bible characters that had unfortunate end like Samson.

The fourth track is titled ‘Ayipada Tooto’ is a called to the change that God is expecting from man. He said the change that every man needs is to change to godliness and righteousness while Nigerians need to change from being corrupt. In his exact words,

‘the honourables dishonouring themselves’; the respected disrespecting themselves;

the exalted debasing themselves; the valued devaluing themselves;

the graced disgracing themselves falling from grace to grass; exhibiting shows of shame; they need to change’

The track is an address of the political situation of the country. He implored political leaders to have a change of attitude; women to have a change of attitude. Other people that were not left out include students; teachers; masters; traditional rulers; traders; fuel attendants; journalists; civil servants and nomadic Fulani cattle rearers which he addressed in Hausa language and virtually every strata of the society. He implored everyone to turn to God.

The final track of the album is an encouragement to everybody titled ‘Erin’ however with moderation. The song is equally a plea that God should make use rejoice. The benefits of laughter were enumerated. He summed it up with the Biblical example of Abraham who laughed.

This is an original work of a gospel performer poet who has rendered his poetry in a corrective way for everyone who wants to hear the truth in tunes. He was able to code mix in a very attractive way. This great piece of music is recommended to everyone who has the desire for ingenious and meaningful music. This is another quality product from OKEHO!

HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY!

Two Poets tie at the Julie Suk Contest for Best Poetry Book 2015

We have a tie this year for the winner of the Julie Suk Contest for best poetry book published by an independent press.

Noel Crook, Salt Moon, Southern Illinois University Press
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn, University of Pittsburgh Press

Final judge Julie Suk says –
There are times language springs out of poems so strong
and perfectly attuned to subject it knocks us to our knees.
So it goes with Noel Crook‘s astonishing first book, Salt Moon.
Deep tenderness and love compete with the “crush of small
bones” in “a world that could take you in an instant.”
Buzzards wheel, crows on the lawn “bark a raucous code,” and
a “fisted black widow” appears in the sandbox. 

Relishing these images, the reader is compelled to return again
and again to her work.

And there, equally sinuous and authentic, are the poems in
Boy With Thorn by Rickey Laurentiis. His is a brutal world,
yet the rich, emotive language is ever in control.  Who else
has written so eloquently of a lynching as he does in the chilling
poem, “Of Leaves That Have Fallen”?

There is a wild elegance ever present in these wanton
yet deeply intimate poems. One does not question the awards
he has received.

Please buy these two books.  Buy all 5 finalists.  Buy all 16 on the long list.
You won’t regret it.

The 5 finalists are –

Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping, New Issues Press
Tara Bray, Small Mothers of Fright, LSU Press
Nickole Brown, Fanny Says, Boa Editions Ltd
Noel Crook, Salt Moon, Southern Illinois University Press
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn, University of Pittsburgh Press

Congratulations to these 16 poets who made the long list of finalists for the Julie Suk Award for the best book of poetry published by an independent or university press in 2015.

It was difficult to narrow it to 16, there were so many good books published. Special thanks to my two women readers for their thoughtful deliberations and careful reading of all submissions. They shall remain anonymous, although I will say both are published poets.

Now for the difficult task of narrowing this list down to 4 or 5 for final judging. I would recommend these books without hesitation to all readers.

Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping, New Issues Press
Tara Bray, Small Mothers of Fright, LSU Press
Nickole Brown, Fanny Says, Boa Editions Ltd
Laura Bylenok, Warp, Truman State University Press
Noel Crook, Salt Moon, Southern Illinois University Press
Gregory Donovan, Torn from the Sun, Red Hen Press
Veronica Golos, Rootwork, Three: A Taos Press
John Hoppenthaler, Domestic Garden, Carnegie Mellon University Press
Jessica Jacobs, Pelvis with Distance,White Pine Press
Kirun Kapur, Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist, Elixir Press
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn, University of Pittsburgh Press
Angie Macri, Underwater Panther, Southeast Missouri State University Press
Nate Marshalll, Wild Hundreds, University of Pittsburgh Press
Kathleen McGookeyy, Stay, Press 53
Catriona O’Reilly, Geis, Wake Forest University Press
Marci Vogel, At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody, Howling Bird Press

2014 Julie Suk Award Winner

In our first 2 years, finalists have been published by presses in the U.S., Ireland, and Canada.

The 2014 winner –
David Roderick – The Americans – University of Pittsburgh Press

Runner ups –
Kelli Russell Agodon – Hourglass Museum – White Pine Press
Zeina Hashem Beck – To Live in Autumn – The Backwaters Press
Chloe Honum– The Tulip-Flame – Cleveland State University Press
Garth Martens – Prologue for the Age of Consequence – Anansi 
Susan Rich – Cloud Pharmacy – White Pine Press

Culled from http://www.jacarpress.com/readers/