Romeo Oriogun, a Nigerian poet and essayist has won the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his poetry collection “Nomad.” As the winner of this year’s Prize, he received $100,000 in cash and a plaque.
“Nomad” by Romeo Oriogun was chosen from a shortlist of three, which included “Memory and the Call of Water” by Su’eddie Vershima Agema and “Your Crib, My Qibla” by Saddiq Dzukogi. The book was selected from 288 submissions for the 2022 competition.
According to the judges, “The 67 poems in the collection were held together by a travel motif, marshalled in each poem with equal intensity, and linked to the African past, including the Middle Passage, and the African future.”
Past recipients of the Nigerian Prize for Literature include Tade Ipeadola, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, Jude Dibia, Chika Unigwe, Oke Ikeogwu, and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.
Romeo is not new to winning. He was awarded the Brunel International African Poetry Prize in 2017, was a finalist for the Lambda Prize for Poetry and the 2020 Future Awards African Prize for Literature.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Romeo is also the author of “Sacrament of Bodies.”
Congratulations Romeo on your latest achievement.
