Sunday, June 18, 2006
Call for Entry for the 2nd Annual Equiano Prize for Fiction
July 10, 2006, Bay Shore, New York: Iroko Productions LLC today announces calls for entries for the second annual Olaudah Equiano Fiction Prize.
The $1000 prize is open to Africans living abroad. It is for an unpublished short story of 3000 to 10000 words that centers on the experiences of Africans abroad.
Entries for the second edition of the prize will be accepted from July 10, 2006 until September 30, 2006. Shortlisted candidates will be announced November 30, 2006. The winners will be announced on December 24, 2006.
All stories submitted for the first two years of the competition will be considered for publication in an anthology of short fiction devoted to new voices of Africans abroad slated for publication in the spring of 2007.
The judges for this year’s competition are Okey Ndibe of Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Wale Adebanwi, a Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar at the Cambridge University, England, and Obiwu, Director, The Writing Center, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio.
According to Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo, the CEO of Iroko Productions LLC, “The first response to Equiano Prize was excellent. This year, we intend to take the competition to a new height so that by next year an elegant award ceremony will become part of the event.”
Last year’s prize was won by Chielozona Eze, an assistant professor of postcolonial and Anglophone African literature at Northeastern Illinois University for his short story, “Lessons in German.”
The second prize went to Anietie Isong for his story, “How Great Thou Art.” The $300 2nd prize is endowed by Dr. Chuma Osakwe in the memory of his late father, Chief S. B. C Osakwe.
The 3rd prize of $100 went to Chika Unigwe for her story, “Confetti, Glitter, and Ash.”
Iroko Productions LLC is the publisher of Children of A Retired God by Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo. Production works on the film The Last African Virgin is slated to start in the spring of 2007.
For detailed guideline on Equiano Prize, please visit http://www.equianoprize.blogspot.com/
Contact Information: Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Email: Rudolf@irokoproductions.com
Phone: 617-697-1733
Rules
2.) All works must be an original and unpublished short story. Each story shall center on the experience of Africans living abroad.
3.) The length of the work must be between 3000 and 5000 words.
4.) All entries must be in English and not submitted elsewhere until winners are announced.
5.) All entries must be typewritten and double-spaced on one side of 8.5 x 11 white paper. Manuscripts will not be returned, so keep your original.
6.) All candidates are allowed to submit one story only.
7.) A word document attachment of the same entry must be sent to editor@irokoproductions.com
8.) There will be a cash prize of $1000 for the winning author. Second place author will get $300 and third place author will get $100.
9.) All stories will be considered for publication in an anthology of new voices of Africa abroad.
10.) Iroko Productions LLC reserves the first serial rights to publish the stories worldwide. All rights return to the author on publication.
11.) Iroko Productions LLC also reserves the first right to option the stories for motion pictures production.
12.) Please send hard copy of your story to Iroko
Productions, LLC, P. O. Box 541, Lynn, MA, 01905
13.) Closing date for entry is September 30th, 2006. Entries received the day after will not be considered.
14.) Short-listed entries will be announced on November 30, 2006.
15.) Winning entry will be announced on December 24, 2006.
16.) Entries that fail to conform to the rules above will not be considered.
17.) Employees of Iroko Productions LLC, their immediate families, the judges and their immediate families are not eligible for this competition.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Chielozona Eze Wins 1st Olaudah Equiano Prize for Fiction
Bay Shore, New York, December 23, 2005: Iroko Productions today announces Chielozona Eze as the winner of the 1st Olaudah Equiano Prize for Fiction. He won the $1000 Prize with his short story, “Lessons in German.”
Chielozona Eze is an assistant professor of postcolonial and Anglophone African literature at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago.
The judges describe Chielozona Eze's winning short story, "Lessons in German," as “a swan song to, and of, all that was, and is, beautiful and enduring but utterly corrupted by humanity. It is an awakening of consciousness to the binding contract of sublimation, the pristine glory of nature that is bound for decay, an ennobling song in our hearts that is the beginning of manic depression.”
In the words of Obiwu, the chairman of the judges, “‘Lessons in German’ is a narration about music and language, sex and sexuality, love and hate, art and artifice, knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness, genocide and communality, affirmation and denegation. Eze pours his body and soul, not unlike the enmeshed wine and flesh of his interracial protagonists, into a narrative that is one of the most consuming commentaries on contemporary dialectics of migration, globalization, and the return of beauty.”
Chielozona Eze grew up in Enugu, Nigeria. He completed his graduate studies from Purdue University in December 2003. From 2004 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, at Los Angeles.
The second prize goes to Anietie Isong for his story, “How Great Thou Art.” The $300 2nd prize is endowed by Dr. Chuma Osakwe in the memory of his late father, Chief S. B. C Osakwe.
The 3rd prize of $100 goes to Chika Unigwe for her story, “Confetti, Glitter, and Ash.”
All stories submitted for this year’s competition will be considered for publication in an anthology of short fiction devoted to new voices of Africans abroad.
The judges for this year’s competition were Okey Ndibe, Wale Adebanwi, and Obiwu.
According to Rudolf Okonkwo, the CEO of Iroko Productions, “entries for next year’s edition will open on July 1, 2006, and the winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.’
The Olaudah Equiano Prize is supported by United African Artists, www.UnitedAfricanArtists.com, producers of the movie, THIS AMERICA, Ehimen Edokpa of IBG Tax & Accounting LLC, www.ibgtax.com, Ik Anunike of Lord’s Wish Transportation, Angel Amukadi of Teamprophoto.net and Olisa Adigwe of Lowell, MA.
Contact Information: Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Email: Rudolf@irokoproductions
About the Competition
As more and more Africans immigrate, Africa loses some of its finest minds. While abroad, the struggle for survival often overshadows the utilization of the potentials in these Africans. Their talents and expected contributions to humanity suffer as a consequence.
This competition is a little effort aimed at encouraging talented Africans abroad to revisit their gifts, reconnect with their dreams and reassert their unique place in literary world.
At Iroko Productions & Publications, we believe that the African geniuses are here with us. We are committed to the search for these gems. When we find them, we intend to nurture and celebrate them. We believe that the continuing existence of the African masterpieces depends on our ability to identify, promote and preserve the African geniuses at home and abroad.
We aspire to give greater audience to established African talents and beam a bright light on those previously unrecognized. It is also our hope that African experiences at home and abroad should occupy a central place in world literature.
With time, we hope to expand the prizes and recognition programs we have to include Africans writing in Africa.
About Olaudah Equiano
About Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, an Igbo village in the country now known as Nigeria in the year 1745. At age 11, he was kidnapped by Aro people and sold into slavery. He survived the inhumane Middle Passage to Barbados in which over 50 % of all African slaves perished. He was finally sold to a planter in Virginia. In 1757, British Naval officer, Michael Henry Pascal bought him as a present to his cousin in London and renamed him Gustavus Vassa. He traveled to Britain and from 1758 – 62, he served the British Navy during the French and Indian War. The promise of freedom made by Pascal was not fulfilled. Equiano was again sold to Robert King in Montserrat.
From 1763 –66, Equiano worked on ships that transported slaves from West Indies to Mainland America. By 1766, he had mastered merchants’ commercial practices and was able to save enough money from his own labor that he paid 40 Pounds Sterling and bought his freedom. As a seaman, he traveled the world from Europe to America and down the Mediterranean. He was involved in the movement to abolish slavery. In 1789, he presented antislavery petition to England’s Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. He was appointed a commissary officer charged with the resettlement of London’s poor Blacks in Sierra Leone.
Equiano was an intelligent man who was able to learn the language, religion and laws of his enslaver. In 1789, he published “Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African.” It became a popular best seller and made Equiano rich. The book influenced the struggle for the abolition of Slave trade and literally created a new literary genre known as slave narratives. Equiano’s narrative was the first autobiographic book published in English by an African. He was also the first African to write about life in African villages and the horrors of slavery. In 1789, Equiano married an Englishwoman named Susan Cullen. He died in London in 1797 at the age of 52. He was buried in Cambridgeshire, England.
At the time of his death, his narrative has been published in nine different editions.
The struggle, survival, and success of Equiano exemplified the best of Africa in the Diaspora. Naming this prize after Equiano is more of tribute to a man who was the first to tell the African story in English, the first to challenge the oppressive environment Africans in the Diaspora find themselves and the first to overcome the obstacles and make a success of himself. In another way, it is a commitment to the discovery, celebration and preservation of the African experience in the Diaspora.
The Judges
Okey Ndibe
Wale Adebanwi
Obiwu
Judges
For the second in this annual prize, the judges will be:
a.) Okey Ndibe is an Associate Professor of Literature and Languages, Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Ndibe is the author of Arrows of Rain and a columnist for Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper.
b.) Wale Adebanwi, until recently, was a lecturer in Political Science (University of Ibadan), and currently Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar at the Cambridge University, England. He is a writer and literary critic.
c.) Obiwu, Director, The Writing Center, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Obiwu is the author of Igbos of Northern Nigeria.
