Vivian Onyekachi Ibe has won the 2019 Quramo Writers Prize. A month ago, Quramo publishing announced the top 15 enteries for the 2019 edition of the annual Writers’ Prize.
The three day literary experience curated by the wave making Quramo Publishing tagged Quramo Festival of Words, (QFest2019) featured literary masterclasses, panel discussions and exciting film screenings.
The literary event climaxed with the announcement of the winner of the Quramo Writers’ Prize which is awarded to an unpublished fiction manuscript.
After the ‘Q-Conversations’ with Molara Wood interviewing Kadaria Ahmed and Toni Kan interviewing Bankole Olayebi, the three judges A. Igoni Barrett, Molara Wood and head judge Toni Kan mounted the stage to announce the Top 5 and the Top 3 after a short interlude.
Vivian Onyekachi Ibe edged out her fellow competitors with her gripping piece, “What Dreams Are Made Of,” to become the first female winner of he prize, coming after Samuel Monye, QWP2017 and Emmanuel Michael QWP2018.
The Lagos State First Lady, Mrs. Ibironke Sanwo-olu and the wife of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Oluremi Hamzat graced the event and presented Ibe with her gift prize.
The 3rd place entry went to Jaiyeola Temitayo Tomiwa for his entry, ‘You will be Fine’ while Joan Wawira Thatiah won second place for her manuscript ‘Guilty.’
Responding to her win, Ibe said “I am honestly overwhelmed by the outcome because I really didn’t expect it. My intention was to just come around and congratulate the winner.”
On how she stumbled on the competition, she said :
“I first saw the announcement for the entry on Okada books and I decided to go for it.”
When asked how long it took to put the book together, Ibe who works in the administrative section of a Lagos law firm revealed that it took a shocking two weeks to piece the winning entry of 50,000 words together.
The judge’s citation described the winning entry “as an assured and astute work of fiction from a writer whose sensibility is popular without veering into the superficial.”
“Our winning entry is a fast-paced, action-packed thriller with great characterization, and dollops of wit and humour. It will find legions of readers and spark urgent conversations especially among the millennials and so ultimately expand the universe of the prize.”
The winner of the Quramo Writers Prize goes home with a cash prize of one million naira and the possibility of a Quramo book publishing deal.
