Iquo DianaAbasi writes prose, poetry and scripts for radio and screen. She often performs her poems with a touch of Ibibio folklore.
Her first collection of poems, Symphony of Becoming, was shortlisted for the NLNG Nigeria prize for literature, and the ANA poetry prize; both in 2013. It has also been shortlisted for the Woke Soyinka Prize for Literature.
She is an alumnus of Fidelity Bank's International Creative Writing Workshop, and was writer in residence at the Ebedi International Writers Residency In 2013.
Her writings appear in Kalahari review, Saraba magazine, ANA Review, AfricaInWords and Olisa.tv. She has been featured in several poetry anthologies. Stages she on which she has performed include: Lagos International Poetry Festival, Ake Arts and Book Festival, The Big60 Cultural Exchange, Wole Soyinka @80, Lagos Black Heritage Festival, The Macmillan Literary night, PLAY Poetry Festival, Word slam, The Lagos Poetry Festival, Word and Sound.
Her collection of short fiction Efo Riro and Other Stories was released in January 2020 by Parresia Books.
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PEN NIGERIA is the Nigerian Centre of PEN INTERNATIONAL which is an international association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayists and novelists. It is a worldwide association of writers founded in 1921, known to play a leading role in promoting literature as a force of global culture and defending freedom of expression and linguistic rights across the world. PEN Nigeria became affiliated to PEN International on November 21st, 2001 at the congress held in London.Review
The Caine Prize for African Writing is a registered charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience using our annual literary award. In addition to administering the Prize, we work to connect readers with African writers through a series of public events, as well as helping emerging writers in Africa to enter the world of mainstream publishing through the annual Caine Prize writers' workshop which takes place in a different African country each year.
The stories written at Caine Prize workshops are published annually alongside the Prize's shortlisted stories in the annual Caine Prize Anthology by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in eight African countries including, Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), Gadsen Publishers (Zambia), 'amaBooks (Zimbabwe) and Langaa (Cameroon).
It is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc, who was Chairman of the 'Africa 95' arts festival in Europe and Africa in 1995 and for nearly 25 years Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee. After his death, friends and colleagues decided to establish a prize of £10,000 to be awarded annually in his memory. Review
