Literature
ISAAC ATTAH OGEZI, legal practitioner, playwright, short story writer and literary essayist, based in Keffi, Nasarawa State, is a consistent literary prizes winner . In addition to his numerous prizes, his play, Waiting for Savon, has just won this year?s edition of Esiaba Irobi Prize. In this interview, he speaks to SUMAILA UMAISHA about the secret behind his phenomenal success.
How do you feel winning the Esiaba Prize?
Isaac Attah Ogezi: I feel, to use a cliché, at the top of the world! I feel so great words cannot express my happiness.
Did you know you were going to win especially after you?ve been shortlisted?
Actually I didn?t know because I happen to know some of the writers on the shortlist personally and I know them as good writers. So it came to me as a surprise.
Now that you have won it, what will this do to your writing career?
A prize of this nature challenges the writer to be more serious. It is a prize that asks the writer to train for excellence, because a prize makes the winner more marketable by bringing him to public notice. And it beholds on the winner not to disappoint his gathering fans and the reading public. So the prize entails more research, more fidelity to details and so many other literary criteria that deserve attention.
What other prizes have you won so far?
Recently, on the 19th day of October I came third in a CHD/Ford Foundation Prize for short story. Also my unpublished play, A Requiem for the Misbegotten came second last year in AWS/Zulu Sofola Award for drama. And in 2006 my adaptation of Wole Soyinka?s novel, The Interpreters, under the title, The Misfit, came third in an adaptation competition organised by ANA. And in 2008 my adaptation of Achebe?s Arrow of God, under the title Ezeulu, came first, in an adaptation competition organised by ANA.
What is the secret behind the success?
The secret behind the success is focus. As a writer, I have great partiality for playwright; I don?t want to be a Jack of all trade master of none. If I go to a bookshop, my first interest is drama. So I?m more focused on drama writing. That is why most of my dramatic works win awards.
Given your own experience, what is your advice to other writers?
I advise for focus. All writers should be focused and again they need patience. As a writer, my training days were at the university and I was privileged to read some of the greatest dramatists in the world like William Shakespeare, some of the best award-winning American and Norwegian dramas. It entails reading the best, the classics. That is the secret.
(c) Interviewed by Sumaila Umaisha and published in New Nigerian newspapers.
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Literature
I feel at the top of the world!
ISAAC ATTAH OGEZI, legal practitioner, playwright, short story writer and literary essayist, based in Keffi, Nasarawa State, is a consistent literary prizes winner . In addition to his numerous prizes, his play, Waiting for Savon, has just won this year?s edition of Esiaba Irobi Prize. In this interview, he speaks to SUMAILA UMAISHA about the secret behind his phenomenal success.
How do you feel winning the Esiaba Prize?
Isaac Attah Ogezi: I feel, to use a cliché, at the top of the world! I feel so great words cannot express my happiness.
Did you know you were going to win especially after you?ve been shortlisted?
Actually I didn?t know because I happen to know some of the writers on the shortlist personally and I know them as good writers. So it came to me as a surprise.
Now that you have won it, what will this do to your writing career?
A prize of this nature challenges the writer to be more serious. It is a prize that asks the writer to train for excellence, because a prize makes the winner more marketable by bringing him to public notice. And it beholds on the winner not to disappoint his gathering fans and the reading public. So the prize entails more research, more fidelity to details and so many other literary criteria that deserve attention.
What other prizes have you won so far?
Recently, on the 19th day of October I came third in a CHD/Ford Foundation Prize for short story. Also my unpublished play, A Requiem for the Misbegotten came second last year in AWS/Zulu Sofola Award for drama. And in 2006 my adaptation of Wole Soyinka?s novel, The Interpreters, under the title, The Misfit, came third in an adaptation competition organised by ANA. And in 2008 my adaptation of Achebe?s Arrow of God, under the title Ezeulu, came first, in an adaptation competition organised by ANA.
What is the secret behind the success?
The secret behind the success is focus. As a writer, I have great partiality for playwright; I don?t want to be a Jack of all trade master of none. If I go to a bookshop, my first interest is drama. So I?m more focused on drama writing. That is why most of my dramatic works win awards.
Given your own experience, what is your advice to other writers?
I advise for focus. All writers should be focused and again they need patience. As a writer, my training days were at the university and I was privileged to read some of the greatest dramatists in the world like William Shakespeare, some of the best award-winning American and Norwegian dramas. It entails reading the best, the classics. That is the secret.
(c) Interviewed by Sumaila Umaisha and published in New Nigerian newspapers.
- A Novel Takes Its Author To Wherever It Wants ? E. E. Sule
E. E. Sule, Associate Professor of English at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, is no stranger to award winning, having won awards in literary competitions sponsored by Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, and shortlisted for the prestigious...
- Ee Sule And Julian Jackson Win 2013 Commonwealth Prizes ? Africa Region
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the regional winners for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these writers will now...
- 52 Glorious Years Of Nigerian Literature
As Nigeria marks its 52th Independence anniversary, SUMAILA UMAISHA highlights the literary landmarks Before 1960 The effective date of Nigerian?s attainment of independence from the British colonial rule is October 1st, 1960. But the same could...
- Nlng Prize Shortlist: I Feel Ecstatic! - Obi-obasi
The fact that Chinyere Obi-Obasi, a graduate of English Language/Literature and Law, is a writer of no mean repute has just been confirmed by her book, The Great Fall, being shortlisted for the 2011 Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG, Prize for Literature....
- Those Who Don?t Read Fiction Don?t Write Well
BINYAVANGA WAINAINA, a Kenyan writer and winner of the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing, who is currently a Bard Fellow and Director of the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, was one of the resource persons...