The 2023 SEVHAGE literary competition collated several exciting entries from across several corners of Africa. With four categories to showcase the multifaceted talent of African writers, we are once again reminded of the incredible depth and breadth of our continent’s literary prowess. We are grateful to everyone who submitted entries for consideration of the various prizes.
After critical readings and reviews of the several entries submitted for the four categories of the SEVHAGE Literary Prizes, we are honoured to unveil the shortlisted authors for the SEVHAGE Prizes in the following categories:

1. E. E. SULE/SEVHAGE Prize for African Literary Criticism
2. SEVHAGE Prize for Creative Non-Fiction
3. SEVHAGE-Leticia Nyitse Prize for Short Fiction
4. SEVHAGE-KSR Hyginus Ekwuazi Prize for Poetry

E.E. SULE/SEVHAGE Prize for African Literary Criticism 2023 Shortlist

• Women and the Boko Haram Terrorists: Reading Trauma in Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Abidemi Emman Oguntunji
• Egocentrism In Contemporary Literature: A Review of Obari Gomba’s The Lilt Of The Rebel by Adelana Esther
• The Cartography of Human Behavior: Vernacular Theatre in Eastern Africa by Alex Nderitu
• A Principle for the New Nigerian Poetry by Arasi Kamolideen Oluwapelumi
• Negotiating Spaces in Western Metropolitan Societies: Focus on Contemporary Nigerian Diasporic Novels by Bizuum Godwill Yadok
• Of History and Imaginative Re-Creations in Helon Habila’s Waiting for An Angel by Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
• Gender as Performance, and Androgynous Space Creation in African Literature: Reading Dibia’s Walking with Shadows and Duiker’s The Quiet Violence by Eugene Shichet Yakubu
• “Chinua Achebe, A Feminist Extraordinaire?: Misogyny, Masculinity, And Victimhood in Things Fall Apart“ by Kasimma
• “Till Death Do Us Part?” Unravelling Familial Ties in The Representations of Wives in Selected Women Authored Zambian Short Stories by Shilika Chisoko

SEVHAGE Prize for Creative Nonfiction 2023 Shortlist

• Grief: Its Invisible Gerund by Abasi-maenyin Esebre
• Against the Weather by Chimezie Chika
• The Five Stages of Grief is Death by Ejiro Elizabeth Edward
• A Mother Figure by Hajaarh Muhammad Bashar
• Butterflies, Fireflies, & Brotherhood by Hope Joseph
• Everything that Burns by James-Ibe Chinaza
• Boy, What is the Taste of a Glory that Burns by Mhembeuter Jeremiah Orhemba
• No Tongue of My Own by Mwanabibi Sylvia Sikamo
• This is my Story by Ogonna Ochokwu
• It Tastes Like Love by Olajesutofunmi Akinyemi
• In the Furl of Prayers and Miracles by Onyeka Divine

SEVHAGE-LETICIA NYITSE PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION 2023 Shortlist

• The Girl Whose Family Drowned in Her Name by Amanda Ilozumba
• Home Is Where the Heart Rests by Chidera Solomon Anikpe
• Fly by Chukwuemeka Famous
• Let This Be the Noose That Unties Me by Enit’ayanfe Ayosojumi Akinsanya
• Dial M For Murder by Hajara Hussaini Ashara
• Your Hair Smelled of Something Sour, Like Rancid Milk by Ifeanyichukwu Chidera Onukwube
• The Adventures of Tom the Terror by Mike Ekunno
• On Most Saturdays It Doesn’t Rain by Ola W. Halim
• How Lagos Wrings You Dry by Prosper C. Ìféányí

SEVHAGE/KSR Hyginus Ekwuazi Prize for Poetry 2023 Shortlist

• Here, I introduced Kotus to the Encyclopaedia of My Dolour by Abduljalal Musa Aliyu
• Palestine In Recent Times: A Conversation at the Confessional by Chinecherem Enujioke
• chronicles of a place where nothing wets the skin but blood by Chinemerem Prince Nwankwo
• why this poet is addicted to heartbreak songs by Damilola Omotoyinbo
• Ujana by Frank Njugi
• Foreign Gods Hold My Trachea by Frederick Goodness Amarachi
• Self-inoculation//& the Falsettos of Soft Bruise by Joshua Effiong
• Riverscape with Seine by Martins Deep
• In a Poem About Flight My iPhone-XR Autocorrects Father to Feather by Muiz Opeyemi Ajayi
• I Second Guess Religion in Place of Humanity by Nnadi Samuel
• Motion by Okoronkwo Chisom
• In the Call of Ruin by Pacella Chukwuma-Eke
• before the storm came by Saheed Sunday
• glossolalia by Sodiq Oyekanmi
• It Brought Us Here to the Brink by Yarri Kamara

Congratulations to everyone on the list and best wishes in all your endeavours.

Dr Ehighocho Ruth James
SEVHAGE Prizes 2023 Publicity Lead