A lot happened in the literary world in 2018, new voices emerged and old ones remained. Various competitions were held prizes were awarded.
- Chimamanda won the 2018 Pen Pinter Prize for her writing and activism that has cut across borders.
- Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto won the New Hampshire Institute of Art’s 2018 Award: Narratives in Prose and Poverty; with $100 prize money and $5000 scholarship to study in New Hampshire. He also won the 2018 Castello di Duino Poesia Prize for unpublished Poem, My Home: May a Down bring a new Smile upon it.
- Abimbola Dare won the 2018 BATH Novel International Prize for emerging unpublished writers, for her book ‘The Girl with the Rounding voice’.
- Aniete Isong won the Mc Kitterick Prize for his book ‘Radio Sunrise’.
- The NLNG Prize went to Soji Cole for his book Embers that focuses on lives of internally displaced people’s camps in Northern Nigeria.
- Uchenna Eze’s The Longest Trial won the ANA Prose Fiction Prize, while the ANA Drama Prize was awarded to Obari Gomba with Guerilla Post.
- Ayobami Adebayo was longlisted for Dylan Thomas Prize for her novel ‘Stay with Me’.
- The ANA Poetry Prize went to J.O.J. Nwachukwu-Agbada, author of Bombblast or Breakfast, while the ANA/Abubakar Gimba Prize for Short Stories was won by Sisi Miet Sweet’s Justice Club.
- The ANA Prize for Children’s Literature was awarded to Jide Ogunlana’s Primrose and the Kidnappers, while the ANA/NECO Teen Author Prose Prize was won by Ernest Ogunyemi’s Beautiful Things: Stories.
- The essay, “Nativisation as Style and Identity Marker in Barclays Ayakoroma’s Dance on His Grave by Ebi Yeibo won the ANA/Maria Ajima Prize for Literary Criticism by the panel of judges headed by Prof. Nelson Fashina of the University of Ibadan.
- The Clock Can’t Jump Through Time by Adeola Adeyemo was shortlisted for the Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books.
- The Era of the Afrocubs by Ayo Oyeku was also shortlisted for the Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books.
- Nigerian-German writer Efua Traoré was selected as one of the five regional winners for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his work ‘True Happiness’.
- The Beginning of Everything Colourful by Onyeka Nwelue; Hang No Clothes Here by Bolaji Olatunde; The Longest Trial by Uchenna Eze; Absolution by Oreva Ode-Irri and The Return of Half-Something by Chukwudi Eze were shortlisted for 2018 ANA PROSE FICTION PRIZE.
- The Shortlist for 2018 ANA DRAMA PRIZE were Teeth set on Edge by Akin Bello; Mr. Brother by Achalugo Ezekobe; Guerilla Post by Obari Gomba and Saint Ojedi by Amechi Chiedu Obumse.
- Justice Club by SasiMietJajja; Things That Start Small But Sweet by Bibi Ukonu and Vacancy for the Post of a Bride by Emmanuel Asika were shortlisted for 2018 ANA/ ABUBAKAR GIMBA PRIZE FOR SHORT STORIES.
- The shortlist for 2018 ANA Prize for Children’s Literature were Nwauwa: the Girl with big Dreams by Paschal Okeke & Vera O. Chuks-Iwuchukwu; Primrose and the Kidnappers by JideOgunlana and Once Upon a Village by Su’eddie Vershima Agema.
- ANA/NECO TEEN AUTHOR PROSE PRIZE short list was If You Looked Inside a Girl by Chibundum Kosisochukwu Ndukwe and Tomorrow Brings Beautiful Things: Stories by Ernest Ogunyemi.
- Nigerians who made it to the shortlist for the Koffi Addo Prize for Women Who Bleed Colours by Ope Adedeji , The Child and its Many Faces by Karis Onyemenam
- 6th Writivism Short Story Prize Shortlist is out and it features A River Ends in an Ocean by Obinna Jones
- Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature 2018 shortlist were Servio Gbadamosi’s A Tributary in Servitude, Tanure Ojaide’s Songs of Myself and Harriet Anena’s A Nation in Labour.
- Michael Emmanuel emerged as winner of the Quramo Writer’s Prize 2018 for his manuscript, Running Waters.
- The shortlist for Quramo Writers Prize was Achalugo Ezekobe’s Boys on Jumping Trousers; Ani Obiamaka Splendour’s The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow; Chioma Mildred Okonkwo’s All That Glitters; Emmanuel Michael’s Running Waters and Oriasotie Emmanuel Ehimare’s, When Yesterday Saved Tomorrow.
- Helen Oyeyemi became judge for 2018 Man Booker International Prize.
- The 3rd Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Non Fiction was judged by Akwaeke Emezi as the chair person
2018 Literary events
- Ake festival took place for the first in Lagos state in October 2018, with the theme - Fantastical Futures.
- The 17th Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF 2018) held from Monday, May 7-12, 2018 at University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos state.
- Kaduna Book and Arts Festival (KABAFest) held in September, 2018
- Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest) held from October to November 2018, with the theme- ‘wide awake’. An examination of the “growing importance of vigilance in a post truth era”.
- Lagos Arts and Book Festival 2018 (LABAF) held in November, 2018
- Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALIFest) held in June, 2018.
