ON WINNING THE ANA Prize FOR POETRY
The art of language has always held an intrigue for me, so my inclination towards poetry started at the same time with my love for prose, drama and all things literature. African poets like Okot p’Bitek, Wole Soyinka, J.P Clark and so many other fantastic writers helped me appreciate the uniqueness of poetry as a form of literature and it was not long before I would start scribbling poems of my own. My first collection of poems “Inside My Head” is a work spanning a period of over ten years. Poems like “The Magnitude Of Love” was written when I was sixteen. The journey continued till just last year when I finished the poem “Cruel Ink” and decided that it was time to share my collection with the world, and I did just that.Convinced about the usefulness of pictures in driving home the point of a poem, I set about the task of coming up with sketches for the fifty poems which make up the collection. It was hard work but it was worth it when I was eventually announced the winner of the 2012 ANA Prize for Poetry during the ANA convention that took place in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state.
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I can't remember what spurred me to heed the call of the Association of Nigerian Authors to writers to submit their work for the annual literary contest. All I remember is the single thought "Well, why not?" and it then my work joined over 137 entries by writers home and abroad to compete in the various categories of the literary show down. So trying not to second guess my action and ignore the small, still and ruthlessly persistent voice that reminded me of my newbie status in the colourful world of Nigeria literature, I pushed the memory of what I had done from my head and went about making the most out of the year.