Multiple award-winning writer Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto is the winner of the 7th edition of the by Words Rhymes & Rhythm Publisher’s annual Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) 2018.
The winning poem poem I BURN INCENSES BEFORE SLEEP beat two hundred twenty-four other entries to the top prize. Coming closely behind the Imo-born poet is teenage poet Dipe Jolaade and University of Benin poet, Nome Emeka Patrick in 1st Runner-Up position and 2nd Runner-Up positions respectively.
Speaking about the winning poem, EOPP 2019 co-judge Oyindamola Shoola said:
For me, in ‘I Burn Incenses before Sleep’, Ezenwa-Ohaeto reached a height of honesty, passion and vulnerability, one that flawlessly implements its didactics and has the power to affect people, things and systems that we hold on to religiously.
— Oyindamola Shoola (A REVIEW OF EOPP 2018 WINNING POEM)
Ezenwa-Ohaeto will take home a N25,000 cash prize while Dipe and Nome will get N15,000 and N10,000. All three poets receive books by Eriata Oribhabor, certificates of recognition and books by Eriata Oribhabor. In addition, the First Prize winner will get an all-expense paid invitation to the PIN Food Poetry Contest award dinner scheduled for 2019.
All the poems that made the top 20 shortlist of the EOPP 2018 are published in a chapbook titled I BURN INCENSE BEFORE I SLEEP. Download your FREE copy below:
DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY OF I BURN INCENSE BEFORE I SLEEP
ABOUT THE WINNERS
Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s long list of literary laurels include the Association of Nigerian Author’s Literary Award for Mazariyya Ana Teen Poetry Prize, 2009; Etisalat Prize for Literature, Flash fiction, 2014 (runner-up); Castello di Duino Poesia Prize (2018); New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Writing Award, and New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Scholarship to MFA in Writing Program.
Dipe Jola is a teenage Nigerian writer and ardent lover of art and literature who enjoys reading and writing poems. Jola’s writings have been featured in a numbers of anthologies. According to her, darkness is light to hidden rainbows. She lives in Lagos from where she writes.
Nome, Emeka Patrick is a Nigerian writer studying English Language and Literature at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Nigeria. In 2018, he was awarded the 40th Festus Iyayi Award for Excellence (Poetry). His works have been published or forthcoming in Gaze journal, Beloit poetry journal, FLAPPER HOUSE, Crannóg magazine, Mud Season Review, Barnhouse journal and elsewhere.
DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY OF I BURN INCENSE BEFORE I SLEEP
The ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE (EOPP) is an annual literary prize instituted in November 2012 to give the much-needed attention Nigerian poetry deserves and encourage young Nigerian poets to use poetry as a tool for social change. The Prize finds its purpose in the belief that poetry and the arts are agents of social change that must be routinely encouraged.
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