LIBRETTO CHAPBOOK SERIES/PRIZES (LCS/P)
We received a lot number of entries for our chapbook series this year. Our judges; Francis Annagu and Chisom Okafor had to choose the longlist. We have decided to give the best literary support to poets and writers who are willing to publish and see readers’ finds joy in their works. Thank you so much for sharing your fears, doubts, love and thought-provoking works. We ask you give us the best and you absolutely did. We are grateful and thankful. Hearty congratulations to everyone. We hope to see your brilliant works next year for Short Story Chapbook Series/Prizes. Thank you all round!
ABOUT FRANCIS ANNAGU:
Francis Annagu is a native of Ninzom, from Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. He graduate top of his class in the Department of Political Science, Kaduna State University. A creative writer & rights activist; during his third year at the university he published a poetry collection “Our Land in the Beak of Vultures (Hesterglock Press, UK)”. His poetry works have appeared in over twenty-five literary anthologies and magazines including Potomac Journal, Crannog Magazine, Dead Snakes, London Grip New Poetry and elsewhere. In 2016, he received the Poets In Nigeria Special Mention and was one time Nominated Best Of The Net by Parousia Magazine. Shortlisted for the Erbacce Poetry Prize in England, he’s regarded today as Southern Kaduna most prominent poetic voice.
ABOUT CHISOM OKAFOR:
Chisom Okafor lives in Lagos, Nigeria. His works appear or are forthcoming in Praira Schooner, Palette Poetry, The Indian Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, Expound Magazine, The Single Story Foundation Journal, The Rising Phoenix and elewhere. He was listed in Woke Africa’s “21 Best African Writers of the New Generation.” He was also shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Award for Poetry in 2018.
THOUGHTS ON THE CONTEST:
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this submission. It was such an awesome moment to read and educating us with your words and it was fulfilling to be able to select the best works. I need to be really sincere as there where many excellent works submitted. The chapbook editors Francis Annagu and Chisom Okafor selected ten (10) works each and we arrive at twenty (20) works longlist out of thirty (30) manuscripts submitted. I think that is impressive. According to the editors they are so pleased with the amount of submissions received, and hope next year submissions should be more impressive.
The shortlist would be release on Sunday 19th April, 2020. And the judge’s comment would be release for free download on the website on the day of announcing the winners.
Below are all the authors name and work and country in no particular order of twenty works longlisted by the chapbook editors; Francis Annagu and Chisom Okafor.
- 20 Sonnets – Bruce McRae – Canadian
- A portrait of Violence – Efe Ogufere – Nigeria
- A Nigerian Songs – Edeki Favour Akpersiri O’gaga – Nigeria
- Catch your dreams – Sara Grimes – U.S.A
- Chemical history of an earring – Mobolaji Olawale – Nigeria
- Citizen’s Arrest – Patricia Walsh – Ireland
- Dare to Stare – Karla Linn Merrifield – U.S.A
- Eighteen Expressions of love – Jaachi Anyatonwu – Nigeria
- Fourteen Itinerant Musings; A Recital – Seye Fakinlede – Nigeria
- Gay Blade – Kenneth Pobo – U.S.A
- Homing Bird – Ebuka Prince Okoroafor – Nigeria
- How to drink yourself sober – Alex Stolis – U.S.A
- Love is a Profusion of Roses Growing from the Barrel of a Gun – Olu Familoni – Nigeria
- Poetry of Life – Olajuwon Joseph Olumide – Nigeria
- Silence is the Beginning of Hell – Abdulbaki Ahmad – Nigeria
- Something about love – Adeogo Adedeji – Nigeria
- Spells of my Name – I.S. Jones – America/Nigeria
- Telling the Bees – Bruce Meyer – U.S.A
- The drum stick – Joshua Oyetunji Olabisi – Nigeria
- Walking from dreams of water – Michael Neal Morris – U.S.A
Authors Biography
Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician currently residing on Salt Spring Island BC, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with over 1,500 poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His books are ‘The So-Called Sonnets (Silenced Press); ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy; (Cawing Crow Press) and ‘Like As If” (Pski’s Porch), Hearsay (The Poet’s Haven).
Efe Ogunfere He is a Nigerian poet working in Port Harcourt. A few of his poems been featured on journals and magazines such as Sediments Literary Review, The Kalahari Review, Afrikan Mbiu, Ibis Head Review and The Single Story Foundation Issue I. In 2016, he was long-listed for the RL Poetry Award (International Category). In 2017, He was listed by Nanty Green as one of the top ten contemporary poets you should be reading. His chapbook A Portrait of Violence drops in 2019.
Edeki Favour Akpesiri O’gaga is a poet, playwright and script writer, he has a flaring and unflinching passion for building mindsets with words. he is from Delta State. he is a graduate of optometry, university of Benin and currently practicing. contact info: 08036780884, favour.edeki35@gmail.com.
Sara Grimes is a creative writer of 23 years. She was a writer and editor at the University of Washington’s the Daily. She has her degree in Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her publications can be found on Untapped Cities Magazine and Transmedia SF. She is also a copywriter for vacation rental companies and non-profits. She lives in the irreperesible Pacific Northwest with her dog, Austen.
Mobolaji Olawale often revisits the streets of Ikosi, Ketu in Lagos where he spent most of his childhood and pretend nothing has changed. He tells himself the fact that his secondary school now has a new uniform and he, a mustache don’t matter. He has poems in Indianapolis Review, New Orleans Review, Best New African Poets 2018 Anthology and elsewhere. He tweets from @theBolaji
Patricia Walsh was born and raised in the parish of Mourneabbey, Co Cork, Ireland. To date, she has published one novel, titled The Quest for Lost Eire, in 2014, and has published one collection of poetry, titled Continuity Errors, with Lapwing Publications in 2010. She has since been published in a variety of print and online journals. These include: The Lake; Seventh Quarry Press; Marble Journal; New Binary Press; Stanzas; Crossways; Ygdrasil; Seventh Quarry; The Fractured Nuance; Revival Magazine; Ink Sweat and Tears; Drunk Monkeys; Hesterglock Press; Linnet’s Wing, Narrator International, The Galway Review; Poethead and The Evening Echo.
Karla Linn Merrifield has had 800+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 14 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the newly released full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars; the book is slated to be published in December 2021 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). She is a frequent contributor to The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review.
Jaachi Anyatonwu began writing as a teenager, gaining unparalleled experience in creative writing, while also establishing himself as a respected poet. Influenced by writers such as Okigbo, Maya & Achebe, he aspires to quake earth with his quill, while keeping tabs on efficiency, originality, consistency and accuracy. In 2015, he won the Pengician of the Year Award and in 2016, the Chrysolite Writers Poet of the Year Award. He is the author of many poems and non-fiction books: ‘Diary Of A Broken Poet’, ‘Sweetness’, and You’re Loved & You Belong Here’. His poems have been published in several print and online publications, including Poemify WRR, AllPoetry, Poetry Soup, Poem Hunger, Tush Magazine, and African Writers Magazine. He resides and writes from Aba, Nigeria.
Seye Fakinlede is a teacher, and a Journalist who likes to travel, and review culture. Besides, reading( once a while, lol), traveling, interviewing, his love for learning new languages, and earnestly pursing life unending satisfaction, he loves to visit nature, engage in volunteering services and envisioning his dreamed white cat purring makes him chuckle.
Kenneth Pobo has published nine books and twenty-one chapbooks. His work has appeared in: Hawaii Review, Nimrod, Amsterdam Review, Mudfish, North Dakota Quarterly, and elsewhere.
Ebuka Prince Okoroafor is a Nigerian Medical Student. He writes Poetry, Fiction, and sparingly, Nonfiction. His work has been featured on Eunoia review, Bangalore Review, Daily Science Fiction, Litro USA, African Writer, Praxis Magazine, Kalahari Review and elsewhere. He is a selected winner of the Green Author prize for poetry 2017, and the winner of the 2019 Sevhage Short Story award. Find him on twitter @bukadobigshow and Ig@show_fantastic_
Alex Stolis lives in Minneapolis; he has had poems published in numerous journals. Recent chapbooks include Justice for all, published by Conversation Paperpress (UK) based on the last words of Texas Death Row inmates. Also, Without Dorothy, There is No Going Home from ELJ Publications. Other releases include an e-chapbook, From an iPod found in Canal Park; Duluth, MN, from Right Hand Pointing and Left of the Dial from corrupt press. The full length collection, Postcards from the Knife Thrower was runner up for the Moon City Poetry Prize in 2017. His chapbook, Perspectives on a Crime Scene was recently released by Grey Border books and a full length collection Pop. 1280, is forthcoming from Grey Border books in 2019.
Olu Familoni has written plays, screenplays, and short fiction. His debut collection of stories, Smithereens of Death, won the ANA Prize for Short Stories in 2015; his debut play, Every Single Day, was selected by the British Council as part of the Lagos Theatre Festival in 2016; he wrote a children’s book, I Will Call My Brother For You, in 2019, and his second collection of stories, This Blue Thing, will be out in the first quarter of 2020. His works have appeared in Panorama Journal, Bakwa Magazine, Jalada Africa, Afridiaspora Anthology, Kikwetu Literary Journal, Ake Review, and others. He presently lives in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he works on radio and is working on a novella.
Olajuwon Joseph Olumide is a graduate of Mass communication from the Great Yaba College of Technology. He teaches English Language, Literature in English and Cultural & Creative Arts at Life Land College in Iyesi Ota. He is a native of Ogun State. He has won the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest three times in 2015, 2016 & 2018. He was shortlisted for Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize in 2016. He made the long-lists of Nigerian Students Poetry Prize in 2016, 2017 & 2018. He seeks to publish his full length poetry collections, “Soulless Land”, “Finding the Climax of the Ocean” and his fiction, “Indispensable Allies” soon. His work has appeared on WRR, Etn 24, Pengician.com, Minutes magazine, PIN Quarterly Journal, Pulse, Eboquills and elsewhere. He has also featured in various Poetry Anthologies.
Phone contact: 07066304484, 0902 716 4677
Facebook: Olajuwon Joseph Olumide
email: souljoecreatives@gmail.com
Instagram: @souljoecreatives
Twitter: souljoe8
Abdulbaki Ahmad is a poet, essayist and short-story writer currently rounding up his Electrical Engineering B.Eng program at Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil. He was the 2019 first-prize winner of the National Engineering Science and Tech Essay Competition (NESTEC) and a 2018 finalist of I Found it Short Story Contest. He has been featured in various international and local anthologies. He currently writes from Kano.
Adeogo Adedeji, a Nigerian poet and chess enthusiast. Always learning.
I.S. Jones is a queer American / Nigerian poet and music journalist. She is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, and Brooklyn Poets. She is the 2018 winner of the Brittle Paper Award in Poetry. I.S. hosts a month-long workshop every April, called The Singing Bullet. She is a Book Editor with Indolent Books, Editor at Voicemail Poems, freelances for Complex, Earmilk, NBC News Think, Ambrosia for Heads and elsewhere. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Guernica, The Rumpus, The Offing, The Shade Journal, Nat. Brut, Puerto Del Sol and elsewhere. Alongside Nome Patrick Emeka, she is the co-editor of the Young African Poets Anthology. She is an MFA candidate in Poetry at UW-Madison as well as the 2019 Kemper K. Knapp University Fellowship recipient. She splits her time between Southern California and New York.
Bruce Meyer is author or editor of 64 books of poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, non-fiction, and literary journalism.
Oyetunji Joshua Olabisi is a writer based in Oshogbo, Osun State Nigeria. He was captivated by the work of Chinau Achebe, William Wordworst, Wole Soleyinka, J.P Clark, Christopher Okigbo, Niyi Osundare, Ekwensi, Austen, Emechetta and other authors of the then ubiquitous pacesetters series targeted at young Nigerians. He draws his inspiration from the experiences of Nigerians and other Africans in diaspora. As he journeys through this life, eagerly anticipating the future and the publication of his collection of poems and short stories. He is a graduate of University of Uyo, Akwa- Ibom State.
Michael Neal Morris’ most recent books are Based on Imaginary Events (Faerie Treehouse Press), Release and Haiku, Etc. He is a regular contributor to the blog Two Cents On. He lives with his family just outside the Dallas area, and teaches Composition and Creative Writing at Eastfield College.
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