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We are delighted to announce Ayomide Fasedu (Author of The Ashes Have Their Own Stories), Muti'ah Badruddeen (Author of Rekiya and Z), Obiageli A. Iloakasia (Author of Kambili), and Bina Idonije (Author of Bridges Are For Burning) as shortlisted authors for the 2022 SprinNG Women Authors Prize. This year, the SprinNG Women Authors Prize will select two Female Nigerian Authors who have published full-length books in print and invest N300,000 each in purchasing, distributing, and marketing print copies of their books nationwide. We are immensely grateful to our Judges for their commitment and hard work.  On this note, we invite you to join us in announcing and celebrating the winners of the N600,000 prize on Saturday, 17th December 2022, at 12 pm West African Time via Zoom. You can register via this link: https://tinyurl.com/SWAP2022WinnersAnnouncement meet our shortlisted authors Ayomide Fasedu is a prolific writer and spoken word poet with academic training in law who writes to connect to herself out of a belief that there's no way more beautiful to understand a thing than to make poetry out of it. She was born and raised in Lagos, and writing and performing poetry have been able to neatly pack her life into boxes. She was a finalist at The Lagos International Poetry Festival in 2021, Askifa literary slam in 2019. She emerged winner at the Wordaholics poetry slam in 2018, the best performer at Terra Kulture in 2018, and the Best Essayist at the Saint Titus initiative in 2017. She also performed at the Fan Vanilla Campus Tour. Her writing is centered around women and identity. She draws her inspiration from love and chaos, everything between fairytales and harsh realities. Titilope Sonuga, Kayo Chigonyi, Iquo Diana Abasi, and Rupi Kaur are some of the names that inform her craft. She engages with various themes ranging from love, heartbreak, trauma, loss, healing, femininity, and Nigerianism. Through her bare and honest language, she writes poems that push self-love further into spaces it hasn’t yet permeated, like secondary schools, spaces with teenage girls, and most recently, through her book dedicated to the generality of women. When she is not writing or performing poetry, she makes frozen yogurt in her kitchen or creates amazing music. Recently, she was featured on the most recent Black Magic album titled, ‘The Invitation.’  Muti’ah Badruddeen is a Nigerian reproductive health physician and homeschooling mum. She writes contemporary fiction that centers Nigerian women at the intersection of faith, women’s rights, and reproductive and mental health. Usually told from the framework of her cultural identity as a visibly Muslim African woman, these themes are Muti'ah's greatest passions. They recur in her work in varying combinations, representing her effort to tell meaningful, everyday stories of these women living their lives the best way they know how. A lifelong bibliophile, she knows too well how absent stories of people occupying that intersection are from the dominant literary spaces of African and Muslim cultures. Also, acutely conscious of her pure sciences academic background, Muti’ah attends several writing courses yearly to appease impostor syndrome, the latest being Curtis Brown Creative’s Novel Writing Course for Writers of Colour. She is still trying to find the guts, time, and funds to commit to an MFA. Counting the Scottish-Sudanese Leila Aboulela (and her masterful delivery of Muslim women’s inner world and subjective spirituality) as her greatest literary inspiration, Nigerian writers whose works have influenced Muti’ah the most are Flora Nwapa (for the unapologetically feminist leanings), Amos Tutuola (for the richness of Yoruba tradition and mythology) and the great Chinua Achebe (for the unparalleled descriptiveness of pre-colonial ambiance). When she is not writing, reading, doctoring, or mothering, Muti’ah favourite pastime is trying to catch up on years of sleep lost to all of the above.  Obiageli A. Iloakasia is a Nigerian Writer, Social Critic, Changemaker, and Volunteer. Her work has appeared in SprinNG, The Hearts Magazine, Poetry Potion, and elsewhere. She is the author of Twitter Street (2021), October Blues (2021), and Kàmbílí (2022). Obiageli is very passionate about Leadership, Teaching, and Learning. She believes that every well-written piece is capable of inspiring change and bringing the world closer to us. Obiageli currently writes from Nigeria. She studied English Language and Literature at Benue State University, Makurdi, and is currently pursuing her master’s in literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Some of her favourite writers are Ayobami Adebayo, Titilope Sonuga, Nnamdi Oguike, Roseline Mgbodichimma, Akpa Arinzechukwu, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Warsan Shire, Safia Elhillo, and Chinua Achebe. When she is not writing, she enjoys reading. Some of her favourite books are “Do Not Say It’s Not Your Country” by Nnamdi Oguike, “Stay with Me” by Ayobami Adebayo, “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “A Broken People’s Playlist” by Chiemeka Garricks, “Woman at Point Zero” by Nawal El Sadaawi, and “I Do Not Come to You by Chance” by Adaobi Nwaubani.  Bina Idonije is the author of "Bridges Are for Burning,” her debut novel, published in 2022 by Masobe Books. Although Bridges Are for Burning is her first published work, Bina has always found herself drawn to writing from a young age. Her early literary influences include Enid Blyton and Buchi Emecheta. If you ask her what sorts of books she prefers, she would answer broadly and say fiction over non-fiction any day. If you asked her to narrow that down, she would say she doesn't have a favorite book or a favorite author and considers herself an eclectic reader, feeling as at home with thrillers as she does with romance. However, here's a brief mention of some memorable books she has read: Plum Island by Nelson DeMille, All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover, and A broken People's playlist by Chimeka Garricks. In terms of Nigerian authors, she particularly favors Chimeka Garricks, Abubakar Ibrahim, TJ Benson, and of course, the illustrious Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Bina is a qualified lawyer and likes to think of herself as a lawyer by day and a writer by night (and weekends!). She is currently working on her second novel and hoping to explore the murder-mystery genre this time around (when eventually she defeats the writer's block she is currently dealing with... one of them has to win this fight, and she knows it's not going to be the disembodied, inanimate writer's block!). Besides reading and writing, which jointly are her favorite things to do, she enjoys traveling, watching British television drama series, trying out new restaurants, and hosting friends for drinks at her home. Did I mention she is married with children? Oh, she is. A husband, two teenagers, and one pre-teen, and they reside in the chaotic coastal city of Lagos.
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A Judge for the 2022 SprinNG Women Authors Prize  Angel Nduka-Nwosu (@asangelwassayin) is an award-winning multimedia journalist, editor, and writer. She has written, edited, and researched for media houses like YNaija, RADR Africa, The Avalon Daily, Culture Custodian, and AMAKA Studio, to name a few. An ardent feminist, she is the founder of The Emecheta Collective, a support and accountability network of women writers and creatives. Currently, she is a freelance editor and works as an in-house writer at Urban Woman Magazine. THE INTERVIEW By Adedayo Onabade Q: Many writers often describe vivid emotions when it comes to their writings. How would you describe your relationship with your writing? Is there a certain kind of feeling that your writings evoke for you?
A: For me, writing is memory and self-therapy. I write to keep a record of my growth as a person and also to find myself as a woman. Writing both for an audience and myself is something I will keep doing because, through writing, I have figured out how to navigate traumatic situations. When I write, I give my voice permission to speak unafraid, even in scenarios away from the page and literary settings. I would definitely say that through writing, I have kept my ability to be nostalgic intact and have rebirthed myself into better versions.  The winner of October Giveaway is Daniel Kehinde Olalekan This giveaway is courtesy of SprinNG and Roving Heights Bookstore.
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Please add your name and email address when filling in the comment box. Note: Email addresses will not be made public. See the guide to providing good feedback below. TIPS FOR WRITING GOOD FEEDBACK The goal of providing feedback is: 1. to invite another reader into the world of beauty you have seen in a work 2. to provide a very brief summary of what you read 3. to give your interpretation/perspective of what has been written 4. to provide suggestions for improvement We encourage that your comment meets at least 2 of these goals. The SprinNG team will evaluate the comments and select the winner of the bookstore giftcard at the end of the month. Note: Comment on the poems, book reviews, articles, interviews, and guest posts. By Olafisoye-Oragbade Oluwatosin  On the night the skies cried out in my mother's tongue
- mother must have taught them her songs - I saw pain leave my body like a stranger on a journey carrying a bag the size of my last birthday gift - a signpost of the many sorrows ahead, if life doesn't desert you first. By Hassan Usman  I still don’t know how you, a star, fell from
the sky into my body. How you knew there was gloom lurking under the blackness of my skin. I caught myself saying I didn’t deserve this light, this love, this rebirth; for you, in your luminousness, had chased every piece of darkness out of me. I held love in your eyes, not just love but also light kept holding me back.  Mofiyinfoluwa O. is a writer from Lagos, Nigeria. Her work delves deep into the self, exploring desire, emotional intimacy, and memory. She is a first-year candidate on the Iowa Non-Fiction MFA as a 2022 Iowa Arts Fellow. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Lolwe and is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review. THE INTERVIEW By Adedayo Onabade Q: You previously referred to yourself as a reluctant lawyer-in-training. Why is this so? Did you maybe study law simply out of curiosity?
A: I am so happy I was able to go from a reluctant lawyer to no longer being a lawyer, haha. I was always going to be a lawyer. I don’t even exactly remember when the aspiration formed, but I know in year 6, we had a custom party, and of all the things I could go as, I went dressed as a lawyer. When I got into secondary school, I excelled at debate and public speaking, and every time I won a competition, someone would rush up to me with earnest eyes saying, ‘you would be a great lawyer.' Went to Arts Class and just settled into pursuing law. Never once did it occur to me that I could do something else. Until my first year of university when I fell in love with sociology and decided there was more to the arts than law. Things shifted gradually, but it was law school in Nigeria that made it certain to me that I would not continue with law. I am happy I was right, haha. By Njikonye Charles  God, I see
what you do for other angels— once [not too long ago]…. — Flourish Joshua my eyes— nuzzle around a tree to bend into its fine leaves. the longing presses/ my cheeks wet. i triangle my hands to pray; sanctify me/ holy oil onto vituperate metal. here's limbs-- spear them into fertile soil. i sprout, fig— o divine fig tree— sheen bound by heavenly buss. i swear— |