Ifedigbo’s win follows Obinna Udenwe’s 2021 clinching of the prestigious award for his second novel, Colours of Hatred.
By Editor
Nigerian writer, Sylva Nze Ifedigbo, has been announced as the winner of the 2022 and second edition of the Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature for his novel, Believers and Hustlers.
The Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature, started in 2021 by the Association of Nigerian Authors in honour of Nigerian writer and cultural activist, Chinua Achebe, is awarded yearly to writers of Nigerian descent for a single novel.
Ifedigbo’s win follows Obinna Udenwe’s 2021 clinching of the prestigious award for his second novel, Colours of Hatred.
Following the announcement, Ifedigbo posted on his Twitter page, “We won something. #BelieversandHustlers.
Nigerian writer, Olukorede Yishau, notes on that novel thus: “With a story that spans a few years with some flashes back to reinforce present realities, Ifedigbo is able to paint a huge and multi-coloured canvas of wide-ranging issues bedevilling the church. He is a brutal writer who writes lines dripping with blood but devoid of bile.”
The jury for this year’s prize included Razinat T. Mohammed, and James Tar Tsaaior.
Ifedigbo Nze Sylva is a fiction writer and op-ed columnist who lives in Lagos, Nigeria.