CORA-NLNG Book Party hosts 11 poets for The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2026, August 2
By Editor
THE 17th CORA-NLNG Book Party for poets on the longlist for the 2026 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2026 worth USD$100,000, endowed and promoted by the gas company, NLNG, will hold on Sunday, 2 August 2026 on-site at Shell Zenith Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos and virtual with meeting ID – 897 1626 8311 and passcode – CORA2026. Time is 1.00pm. The event will also accommodate virtual guests via Zoom and will be broadcast live on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram respectively, according to a statement signed by CORA Programme Officer, Mr. Samuel Osaze.
The genre in focus is poetry. The 11 poets on the longlist were drawn from 223 entries received for the competition this year. In alphabetical order, the books on the longlist for The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2026 are Adult Love by Tanure Ojaide, Bakandamiya: An Elegy by Saddiq Dzukogi, Black Passport by Paul Akpomuje, 2000 Blacks by Ajibola Tolase, Ceremony for The Nameless by Theresa Lola, Corpus: Animistic Verses by Ayo Oyeku, Floral’s Love Colony by Tares Oburumu, The Origin of Wounds by Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, The Years of Blood by Adedayo Agarau, Unbind Me Now by James Ugwu Eze and Why Does God Need a Gun? by Ogaga Ifowodo.
The CORA-NLNG Book Party, a literary feast of ideas and life, celebrates the authors and their works for emerging as the very best in the country. It promises to be an afternoon of literary feasting, featuring performances, wining and dinning.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature was inaugurated in 2004 with USD$20,000 prize money. Sponsored by NLNG, the prize money was later raised to USD$50,000 and now, it is USD$100,000, the biggest of its kind in Africa.
The CORA-NLNG Book Party, a special iteration of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), launched in 1996, was initiated after a review of the first five years of the esteemed prize project with the aim of creating a platform through which the public gets to engage with the works considered the best of the usually over 200 entries per edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature.
CORA is a group consisting of artistes, art enthusiasts, art promoters and art writers committed to the flowering of all the contemporary arts of the Nigerian, and African people. It has organised, every year since 1999, the Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF), critically described as ‘the biggest culture picnic on the African continent.’ The 28th edition holds from November 16 — 22 with theme ‘The WorkOver Starts, Now.’
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University, US, Romeo Oriogun, won the last edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2022 in poetry category with his collection, Nomad. Who then among these 11 poets succeeds Oriogun as Nigeria’s poet laureate 2026? The verdict is due to be delivered by prize jury on Friday, 9 October 2026.
