OPEN TO Africans all over the world.

PRIZE: N100,000 for one winner.

DEADLINE: 21st July 2024 11:59pm

In celebrating and making more visible the culture of criticism, SEVHAGE will award the E. E. SULE/SEVHAGE Prize for African Literary Criticism for an outstanding well-researched work of literary criticism or critical appraisal in form of the essay. This prize is in honour of Nigeria’s prominent scholar and literary critic, Prof. Sule Emmanuel Egya (aka E. E. Sule), an outstanding writer, whose lifelong works in criticism are visionary and inspiring.

Submission Guidelines

1. This category is open to Africans all over the world.
2. The essay should be a well-researched piece on African literature and/or African literary theory focusing on a specific contemporary text or area of literature.
3. The essay must not be less than 4500 words or more than 6000 words and should follow the MLA or APA style of citation and referencing.
4. Submission must be an original work that has not been published anywhere (whether online, in a book, blog or social media post) or won any prize.
5. All submissions should be sent as an attachment in a single doc. (Format: Times New Roman font, 1.15 line spacing, font 12) to sevhageprizes@gmail.com following this format:
   • Subject of the e-mail should read: ‘E. E. Sule Prize for Criticism 2024’
   • In the body of the email, include YOUR NAME, YEAR OF BIRTH, COUNTRY, RESIDENT ADDRESS CITY/RESIDENT COUNTRY, TITLE OF YOUR ESSAY, CATEGORY OF ENTRY, EMAIL ADDRESS, CONTACT ADDRESS and CONTACT PHONE NUMBER.
6. Do not include your name either in the subject of your submission email or in the attached doc. Any entry that violates this guideline will be automatically disqualified.
7. You can only make one entry, which cannot be resubmitted or changed. So, make all changes before you submit. Be sure before you submit…

  GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. All entries will be judged anonymously and the shortlisted writers in every category will be contacted via email after the announcements have been made public.
2. Certain entries will be published online and/or in print by SEVHAGE.
3. By entering the competition, entrants agree to give SEVHAGE and her representatives the right to publish their entries online or in print.
4. Judges’ decision is final.
5. Where the selected winner cannot have their prize money paid to them through a Nigerian account, PayPal or Lemonade would be the other option available.

ABOUT E. E. SULE
Professor Sule Emmanuel Egya (aka E. E. Sule) is a prominent professor of African literature and cultural studies who currently primarily works at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. His research interests include the intersection of literature and politics in Africa, feminism, cultural studies, and ecocriticism, in which he has done extensive research and written several essays. He is a recipient of several fellowships and awards including the PER SESH Writing Fellowship; the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship; the African Humanities Fellowship; and the Humboldt Talent Travel Award. He has written over one hundred scholarly articles and literary essays. He is the author of The Writings of Zaynab Alkali (2005); In Their Voices and Visions: Conversations with New Nigerian Writers (2007); Poetics of Rage: A Reading of Remi Raji’s Poetry (2011); Nation, Power, and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry (2014); and Niyi Osundare: a Literary Biography (2017). Some of his critical works include Power and Resistance: Literature, Regime, and the National Imaginary (2019); and Nature, Environment and Activism in Nigerian Literature (2020). He is also the co-editor of Gender and Power in Contemporary Africa: Essays in Honour of Sophia Obiajulu Ogwude (2014) and Studies in Scientific and Cultural Ecology (2021).

Professor Egya is also a multiple award-winning multi-genre creative writer. His first novel Sterile Sky (2012) won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for the Africa Region. Makwala (2018), his second novel, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Prose Fiction Prize 2019. His poetry volumes include What the Sea Told Me (2009, winner of ANA Gabriel Okara Prize), Naked Sun (2006), and Knifing Tongues (2005).