Abdulrahim Hussani has won several other awards, including the 2016 WRR Green Author Prize, and the 2019 Poetically Written Prose Contest.
By Hope Ibiale
Nigerian writer and poet, Abdulrahim Hussani, has won the 2022 Toyin Falola Prize. After reviewing the works of over three writers, Hussani was announced the winner for his short story, Arewa Boys. Hussani, alongside the shortlisted winners, will walk away with a shared cash prize of $2500.
The Toyin Falola Prize is an award organised by Lunaris, the publisher of Lunaris Review. The award aims to honor one of Africa’s scholars and historians, Professor Toyin Falola, for his numerous contributions to African art, history, and culture.
Fayssal Bensalah, one of the judges for the prize, had this to say about Hussani’s Arewa Boys, “A moving story. ‘Arewa Boys’ is masterfully paced, executed in a hypnotic and seamless prose. The writer provokes sadness, but then unexpectedly replaces it with patience and steadfastness. It’s about the pain of national mobility and naïve ambitions. It’s about an alienation felt within the borders of one’s country. It’s about beautiful creatures who do not ask for attention, who persevere quietly and remain patient in the face of eccentricity and realism. Arewa Boys—eccentric yet ambitious, in pain yet steadfast. It is reminiscent of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘You in America.’ “
Abdulrahim Hussani is a Nigerian writer and managing editor of Báaru Sèri Media. He is a graduate of Pure Chemistry from Usmanu DanFodio University, Sokoto, Nigeria. He has received several recognitions for his writings, including the 2019 Poetically Written Prose Contest (winner), WRR Green Author Prize 2016 (winner), Boston Review’s Aura Estrada 2019 Short Story Contest (finalist), 2019 ACT Award (shortlisted), Nigerian Students Poetry Prize 2019 (shortlisted), and many others. His works have appeared in the Boston Review, The Evergreen Review, the Other Foundation, and Baaru Seri Media.
South African novelist, Karen Jennings, and Algerian writer, Fayssal Bensalah, judged the 2022 Toyin Falola Prize.