The Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for Literature has announced the three shortlist for this year’s edition of the annual and most rewarding literary prize in Africa.
The shortlist, according to Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, NLNG, sponsors of the Prize, are: Unbind Me Now by James Ngwu Eze; Why Does God Need A Gun? by Ogaga Ifowodo and Tares Oburumu’s Flora’s Love Colony.
With the shortlist, the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature has reached a decisive stage, while also narrowing the race to the three poetry works.
Meanwhile, the shortlist of three works emerged from the longlist of 11 titles announced in July from the initial pool of 223 submissions, bringing their authors one step closer to the coveted $100,000 prize money.
According to the Advisory Board, “James Ngwu Eze, in Unbind Me Now, uses language that is fluid and aesthetically captivating. This collection decries the sociopolitical dysfunction of the nation and the world at large, interrogating the human condition, and charting a path for redemption. Ogaga Ifowodo, in Why Does God Need A Gun?, depicts religious and political violence in Nigeria, couched in a rich allegorical style. Delivered with the tripartite structure of body, mind and spirit, Ifowodo interrogates those forces that emblematise the world’s challenging ethos.
