汤头条 English faculty member one of three on shortlist for $100K Nigerian literature prize
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 Mississippi State English faculty member is one of three nominees selected for a shortlist of finalists to receive the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his poetry written in tribute to his late daughter.
Saddiq Dzukogi, an assistant professor in 汤头条鈥檚 Department of English, recently was shortlisted for his book, . The winner will be notified on Oct. 14 and will earn a $100,000 cash prize awarded by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas.
鈥淚 feel honored to be in the final three for the prize,鈥 Dzukogi said. 鈥淭his is an incredibly personal book and an elegy. I am grateful that both the book and the prize perpetuate the memory of my beloved daughter.鈥
A native of Minna, Nigeria, Dzukogi said, 鈥淭he book is about a father鈥檚 rebellion against death and its realities. It is an attempt to massage memory and imagination, to manifest both ethereal and physical experiences with a deceased child.鈥
The Nigeria Prize for Literature, the country鈥檚 most prestigious literary award, rotates yearly among four categories鈥攑rose fiction, poetry, drama and children鈥檚 literature. This year 287 poetry books were entered for the competition. The winner will be selected by the Advisory Board for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
鈥淵our Crib, My Qibla鈥 also is nominated for the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize鈥攁n awarded presented annually for a full-length book of poems published in the previous year by a living poet who is not a U.S. citizen. To be announced Oct. 13, the winner of the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize will receive $1,000 from Arrowsmith Press, in partnership with the Derek Walcott Festival in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and the Boston Playwrights鈥 Theatre.
鈥淵our Crib, My Qibla鈥澛爓as named one of the 29 best poetry collections by Oprah Daily last year. Dzukogi also is the author of the chapbook,聽鈥淚nside the Flower Room鈥 (Akashic Books, 2017), which was selected by editors Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the APBF New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series. His poetry is featured in various magazines including聽Kenyon Review,聽Cincinnati Review,聽Poetry Magazine and聽Prairie Schooner.
Dzukogi was a finalist for the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and a recipient of numerous fellowships and grants from the Nebraska Arts Council, Pen America, the Obsidian Foundation, and the University of Nebraska鈥揕incoln, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2022 in English with a specialization in ethnic studies and creative writing. He earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in mass communication in 2015 from Ahmadu Bello University, in Nigeria.
Dzukogi joined 汤头条鈥檚 faculty this fall and currently teaches Introduction to Creative Writing and the Craft of Poetry.
Part of 汤头条鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English is online at .
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at . 聽聽聽聽