The Wilbur & Niso Foundation has announced the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize longlisted candidates. Among the longlists are literary giants Wole Talabi (Nigerian) and Chukwuebuka Ibe (Nigerian) making hits in the literary world winning the category of The Best Published Novel Award.
Thousands of submissions were submitted to the team, out of which 12 different writers were selected. The Africans selected are: Wole Talabi with his eye-catching book, “Shigidi”, and Chukwuebuka Ibe with his breathtaking novel, “Blessings”.
Oluwole Talabi is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer, engineer, and editor, who is considered among the Third Generation of Nigerian Writers. His works include short stories, anthologies Lights Out: Resurrection (2016), African Futurism: An Anthology (2020), These Words Expose Us: An Anthology (2014), Incomplete Solutions (2019), novels Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (2023), and Convergence Problems (2024).
Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at Brittle Paper. He was the runner-up for the 2021 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award, and was profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” by Electric Literature. He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw, and is currently an MFA student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize is an international prize that supports and celebrates the best adventure writing today. In honour of Wilbur Smith, the prize aims to celebrate the spirit of adventure, and discover unforgettable worlds between the marks of extraordinary novels.
Congratulations Chukwuebuka Ibeh and Wole Talabi!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
