All prizes Nigeria
Nigeria · Since 2004 · For books in English
Awarded each October by Nigeria LNG to a book by a Nigerian author, in a genre that rotates each year between prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature. This site lists only the prose fiction years.
Nigeria LNG Limited set up the prize in 2004, together with a prize for science, to reward Nigerian writing and to improve the quality of writing, editing and publishing in the country. It rotates each year between prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature. An advisory board, with members from the Nigerian Academy of Letters and the Association of Nigerian Authors, appoints the judges, who usually announce a longlist of eleven books, then a shortlist of three, and the winner in October. The judges may withhold the prize, as they did in 2004, 2009 and 2015. At first only writers living in Nigeria could enter; Nigerian writers abroad were admitted from 2010. Worth $20,000 at the start, the prize has carried $100,000 since 2011, among the largest literary awards in Africa. The 2020 edition was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria Prize 2025 · Winner
Sànyà
Novel · Speculative
AI-generated summary:A young woman who has always been different is driven by tragedy from her village and her brother Dada, and learns that her powers bind her to a prophesied future she must fight.
Nigeria Prize 2025 · Shortlist
The Road to the Country
Chigozie Obioma · 38 when first published
Novel · 384 pages · War, Historical
AI-generated summary:In Nigeria in the late 1960s, Kunle, a shy, guilt-ridden student, sets out to find his younger brother, who has vanished as civil war breaks out.
Nigeria Prize 2025 · Shortlist
This Motherless Land
Novel · Family, Coming of age
AI-generated summary:After a tragedy in Lagos, young Funke is sent to her mother's family in England, where her free-spirited cousin Liv takes her under her wing.
Nigeria Prize 2021 · Winner
The Son of the House
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia · 41 when first published
Novel · 283 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:In Enugu, Nwabulu, a housemaid since the age of ten, and Julie, an educated woman living on her own, lead very different lives until a kidnapping years later locks them in the same room.
Nigeria Prize 2021 · Shortlist
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Novel · Coming of age
AI-generated summary:Fourteen-year-old Adunni longs for an education, but her father sells her as the third wife of an old man in their Nigerian village; later she flees to Lagos to work as a house-girl.
Nigeria Prize 2021 · Shortlist
The Colours of Hatred
Novel · Family, Crime
AI-generated summary:On her deathbed, Leona, an internationally renowned model, seeks forgiveness for a sin committed out of love and loyalty: killing her father-in-law to avenge her mother's death.
Nigeria Prize 2016 · Winner
Season of Crimson Blossoms
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim · 36 when first published
Novel · 347 pages · Love, Politics
AI-generated summary:In conservative northern Nigeria, Binta Zubairu, a 55-year-old Muslim widow, begins a secret affair with Reza, a 25-year-old weed dealer and political thug.
Nigeria Prize 2016 · Shortlist
Night Dancer
Chika Unigwe · 38 when first published
Novel · 272 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:After burying her mother, Mma inherits everything, including her mother's bad name, and sets out to learn about the past her mother never spoke of and the family she has never known.
Nigeria Prize 2016 · Shortlist
Born on a Tuesday
Elnathan John · 33 when first published
Novel · 263 pages · Coming of age, Politics
AI-generated summary:Dantala, a boy living among street boys in northwestern Nigeria, flees after an election-time arson attack goes wrong and finds refuge and guidance at a mosque.
Nigeria Prize 2012 · Winner
On Black Sisters' Street
Chika Unigwe · 35 when first published
Novel · 298 pages · Migration
AI-generated summary:Four African women share an apartment in Antwerp's red-light district and work to pay off a madam and her pimp, until the murder of one of them draws the others together.
Nigeria Prize 2012 · Shortlist
Onaedo: The Blacksmith's Daughter
Novel · 364 pages · Historical, Coming of age
AI-generated summary:Maxine, an American of mixed white and Nigerian parentage, finds the diaries of a sixteenth-century slave, which tell of Onaedo, a girl from a small Igbo town in the age of Portuguese exploration.
Nigeria Prize 2008 · Winner
Yellow-Yellow
Novel · 179 pages · Coming of age
AI-generated summary:Zilayefa, a mixed-race girl raised by her mother alone in a Niger Delta village damaged by oil, leaves for Port Harcourt determined not to repeat her mother's life.
Nigeria Prize 2008 · Shortlist
Unbridled
Jude Dibia · 32 when first published
Novel · Migration
AI-generated summary:Ngozi, abused as a child in her Nigerian village, escapes to Lagos and then to London, where, living as Erika, she looks for a life of her own and British citizenship.