ANA Congratulates Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia and Uchechukwu Umez Uwazurike

 

ANA CONGRATULATES CHELUCHI ONYEMELUKWE-ONUOBIA AND UCHECHUKWU UMEZ UWAZURIKE ON WINNING NLNG’S PRIZE FOR LITERATURE AND NLNG’S PRIZE FOR LITERARY CRITICISM

 

 

By: Wole Adedoyin (ANA PRO (South)

 

 

Camillus Ukah, ANA President has congratulated the duo of Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia and Uchechukwu Umezurike for winning the 2021 NLNG’s Prize for Literature and NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism on Saturday.

 

 

It would be recalled that Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, Author and professor of Law at the Babcock University, Ogun State and Uchechukwu Umezurike, an essayist and poet were announced the winners of the 2021  NLNG’s Prize for Literature and NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism for their works, “Son of the House” and “Self Publishing in the Era of Military Rule in Nigeria”.

 

 

According to the release,"NLNG’s Prize for Literature Prize and NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism are the most prestigious awards given in recognition of literary and academic advances. The Prizes recognize the critically important role that literature plays in our lives. On behalf of ANA, I offer my sincere congratulations to the duo of Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobi and Uchechukwu Umezurike for their well-deserved awards.

 

 

The Chair of the Advisory Board for the NLNG’s Prize for Literature, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo in her presentation said Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobi's novel was awarded not only because it was full of suspense and intrigue but for how it was able to “tell human and indeed universal stories of rural as against urban life, suffering and survival, loss and redemption, decline and renaissance, destruction and reconstruction, and death and rebirth.”

 

 

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe is a Nigerian-Canadian author and academic. She is best known for her 2019 family saga novel The Son of the House. She is also a Professor of Law at Babcock University, where she served formerly as an Assistant Professor.

 

 

In 2019, she won the Sharjah International Book Fair. In 2021, she won the SprinNG women authors prize. Her novel was also nominated for the Giller Prize and Nigeria Prize for Literature awards.

 

Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (or Uche Peter Umez) is a Nigerian author. Umez's first published work of poetry, Dark through the Delta, deals with the recurring despoliation of Nigeria using the Niger Delta as its motif.

 

A graduate of Government & Public Administration from Abia State University, Umez is also the author of Tears in her Eyes (short stories) and Aridity of Feelings (poems). He has a master's degree in English Studies from the University of Port Harcourt and is currently a PhD student at the University of Alberta, Canada.

 

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has since 2004 rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2005, poetry) for The Dreamer, His Vision; Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto, for his volume of poetry, Chants of a Minstrel (co-winner, 2005, poetry); Ahmed Yerima (2005, drama) for his classic, Hard Ground; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) with her book, My Cousin Sammy; Kaine Agary with her book, Yellow Yellow (2008, prose); Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock; Chika Unigwe (2012, prose), with her novel, On Black Sister’s Street; Tade Ipadeola (2013, poetry) with his collection of poems, The Sahara Testaments; Professor Sam Ukala (2014, drama) with his play, Iredi War; Abubakar Adam Ibrahim with his novel Season of Crimson Blossoms (2016, prose); Ikeogu Oke with his collection of poetry, The Heresiad; (2017, poetry); Soji Cole with his play, Embers (2018, drama); and Jude Idada with his book, Boom, Boom (2019, Children Literature).