Professor Akachi Theodora Ezeigbo has been announced winner of the 2022 Fonlon-Nichols Award for Excellence in Creative Writing by the African Literature Association, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports.
According to a tweet by the Journal of African Literature on May 21, 2022, the day of the announcement, Professor Ezeigbo was awarded for her “career-long work, cherishing and contributing to both African literature and the freedom of Expression”.
In addition to being a receipient of numerous prestigious fellowships, she has received local and international accolades and won numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Nigerian NLNG Prize for Literature, where she now sits as Chair of the Advisory Board.
Professor Ezeigbo has written and published in all the literary genres and is still actively creating both as a literary artist and a scholar. Her two latest works, a collection of stories titled Do Not Burn My Bones and Other Stories and a collection of poems titled Broken Bodies, Damaged Souls and Other Poems , are set to be released in June 2022.
In April 2022, Professor Ezeigbo was one of the guests at the Edinburg International Book Festival 2022 and the London Book Fair 2022. She was also one of the guest lecturers at the Ako-Caine Prize for African Writing Workshop 2022.
The Fonlon-Nichols is awarded to an African writer for excellence in creative writing and contributions to the struggle for human rights and freedom of expression. The award comes with a $1,000 cash prize. Past winners include Tanure Ojaide, Nadine Gordmier, Nawal El Saadawi, Ngugu Wa Thiong’o and Professor Wole Soyinka.