dumbfoundry

Winners of poetry competition get cash reward [Nigeria]:

Two persons, Miss Esther Alabo and Mr. Emmanuel Seyi Alfred have emerged as winners in the 2006 poetry competition organised in Port Harcourt by Voices of the Pen, a literary organisation.

Miss Alabo won the first prize, followed by Mr. Alfred, while Mr Osuobeni Ebipade came third in the poetry competition titled “In my country Nigeria” held at the British Council Olu Obasanjo road, Port Harcourt.

According to Mr. Scion Oeuvre, one of the organisers, the aim of the competition was to encourage poets to find joy and reward in the creative world of art. It was equally aimed at encouraging writers in general to showcase their creative skills by providing incentives and a platform for contemporary authors to come to limelight, he added.

He pointed out that to win in the competition, the contestants were required to write a poem entitled “In my country Nigeria”.

The criteria for winning the poem included that the poem must reflect at least 80 per cent of what is happening in the country Nigeria; it must employ poetry structures in thought representation; be cynical yet hopeful, as well as making the grammatical sequence appeal to the literary class.

The contestants read out their poems to the hearing of a four-man panel of judges, at the end of which the best three poems were choosen. To encourage the poets, a cash award of 10,000 [78 US dollars - eek.], N8,000 and N5,000 were given to the first, second and third prize winners with other gift items like Indomie noodles and Indomie T Shirts presented by the De United Foods Industry Limited.

The winners of the poetry competition expressed gratitude to the organisers and declared their willingness to participate in further competitions.

I quoted the whole thing because I'm fascinated by the name Mr. Scion Oeuvre and because runners up received noodles. And the noodles were donated by the De United Foods Industry? Are things falling apart there?

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 10:57 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.