OPEN TO Africans all over the world.

PRIZE: N285,000 for one winner + publication.

DEADLINE: 24th August 2024 11:59pm WAT

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.

How to Apply and Other Information

• These guidelines are for the Prize in Criticism, (if you are interested in the SEVHAGE Prize in Fiction, please visit the following LINK.)
• Submissions will only be accepted by submitting through the following link: SUBMIT.
• Entrants can submit only one original critical essay.
• 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.
• The minimum word count is 4500 words while the maximum is 6000 words, 
• All entries should be sent in a single Microsoft Word document. (format: Times New Roman font, single line spacing, font 12).
• Do not include your name in the attached document. Any entry that violates this guideline will be automatically disqualified.
• You can only make one entry, which cannot be resubmitted or changed. So, make all changes before you submit. Be sure before you submit.
• For emphasis, no mention or reference to the author or the author’s personal details should be made in the attached story or it will be disqualified.
• Shortlisted writers might be required to produce evidence of country of origin.
• The judges’ decisions are final and not open to debate.
• Shortlisted writers will be contacted by September/October.
• We will be publishing the shortlisted entries for this competition before the announcement of the award. Therefore, only those who are okay with having their works published should enter for the award.
• Winners will be announced by November 2024.
• Submissions will only be accepted by submitting through the following link: SUBMIT.

The prize money is N285,000 plus publication. All shortlisted authors agree to have their work published in an anthology to be published by SEVHAGE. 

[Where the selected winner cannot have their prize money paid to them through a Nigerian account, PayPal or Lemonade would be the only other option available.]

NOTE: The prize is originally N100,000 but has been increased to N285,000 for the year 2024 due to  a one-off support from the SEVHAGE Team, friends and partners.

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).