By Ishaya Ibrahim
Timothy Akintola, a student of English Department, University of Lagos, has won TheNiche prize for poetry.
He received the prize at this year’s Reading Café, a gathering of literary enthusiasts held at the Afe Babalola Hall, University of Lagos (Unilag) on August 22.
The event was jointly organised by the English department students of the university and FinishedWork, a book editing firm.
TheNiche instituted the prize in 2018 as part of the newspaper’s efforts to encourage excellence in poetry in particular and creative writing in general.
According to the judges, Akintola’s poem, We Shall Still Dying, came top among the entries.
A student of the English department, Osho Oluwaseyi, clinched the other two prizes.
His short story, Hate at First Sight placed him ahead of his peers to win the Wale Arikawe prize for Short Story.
The judges also said he gave a good account of himself in the Essay category which fetched him the In the name of Our Father Novel Prize.
TheNiche Head of Human Resources, Kenny Okeowo, reiterated that the online newspaper’s motivation for endowing the award was to promote scholarship and the reading culture among students.
A senior lecturer in the English department, Dr Nurayn Alimi, said the Reading Café was an annual event that celebrates knowledge, reading and creativity.
He commended the quality of the entries in all the categories. He said it depicts the intellectual enterprise of the students, adding that those who didn’t win should console themselves in the knowledge that in every competition, not everybody wins.
Head of English department, University of Lagos, Professor Tunde Opeibi, said the aim of the Reading Café was to enable students draw inspiration from meeting the experts in the field of creative writing.
“The importance is to encourage young people to also develop the talent. It takes a lot of refection, a lot of imagination and a lot of thinking-through to be able to put something together.
“We are trying to develop that talent in you. We are trying to see how you can learn from what we call best practices, those who have gone ahead. That is why we are bringing together those who are established in that field so that you can learn from them,” he said.
He said the presence of Professor Jide Timothy Asobele at the event should inspire the students to take their dreams seriously.
“I want to recognize a very senior professor and great writer. I wish you can know him and how much he has done in this field of creative writing. He is Professor Jide Timothy Asobele. He is a great man,” he said.
The event also featured a novel reading by Julie Omeike, author of the book, Iye,meaning mother. It tells the story of patience, hardwork and diligence of Ivie, the only child of a family that endured eight years before having her.
FinishedWork Chief Executive Officer and newspaper columnist, Lechi Eke, presented a paper on the elements of fiction and how it can be effectively deployed to achieve a good story.
Eke not only congratulated all the winners in this year’s edition, but thanked the sponsors for believing in the Reading Cafe’ project.
