KorloueNow Poetry Competition

KorloueNow is a platform for promoting creative thoughts through writing. It hopes to shift the attention of youths from violence as a means to an end to writing. It is an intellectual platform for developing creative ideas and thought. KorloueNow was formed in 2011 as a project with the sole aim of providing a place online, where budding writers could get their works posted and read by others, with links on Twitter and Facebook. In 2012, the focus changed from just writing, to improving the livelihood of the writers by organising competitions where there will be financial rewards, and publication of selected pieces. The goal is to create a hub for competitions spanning all the genres, and on regular basis.

The KorloueNow Poetry Corner

The wait is over, finally. Ok guys; let’s make some money with our brains, pads and qwertys.  Invoke the muse if he’s departed you, commune with the lyrical gods and get those pieces out. Yes, come out! Tell your friends to tell their friends to tell their parents. The inaugural KorloueNow Poetry Competition is on. Let’s do more than just writing.

1st Prize                    N50, 000

2nd Prize                   N30,000

3rd Prize                    N20,000

The top 10 will be given certificates, and their pieces published on their website

Submission ends at 11:59pm on the 1st of August, 2012, and winners will be announced on the 15th of August, 2012.  More information on the website

Mark Your Calendar...

There are so many events this week. Let's start with Infusion this Thursday. 

Crown Troupe at National Theatre this Friday

Book N Gauge XIII: Fine Boys Are Coming

This month, we would be featuring Eghosa Imasuen, author of Fine Boys and Unoma Azuah author of Edible Bones. 

Imasuen was born on 19 May 1976. He is a medical doctor and lives in Warri, in Nigeria’s Delta State. His short fiction is published online magazines like blackbiro.com and thenewgong.com. His first novel, To Saint Patrick, an alternate History story was published by Farafina. His latest work Fine Boys has been warmly received in literary circles. Eghosa would be discussing his latest work. 

Unoma N. Azuah teaches Composition and Creative Writing at Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee. She is an MFA graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, and has an MA in English from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, both in the US. Her undergraduate degree in English is from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She has received a number of awards for her writings, which include the Hellman/Hammett award and the Leonard Trawick award.

Her latest work, a novel, Edible Bones has been warmly received in literary circles. It follows Kaitochukwu’s journey as an undocumented African immigrant in an unwelcoming American urban square, chronicling the distance between his grand expectations and his ensuing formidable fate. The need for a speedy decision becomes the one tough battle Kaito has to face when he finally visits how home country, Nigeria.

Performers

CLAY (Bianca okorocha) is a Pop/Rock singer and songwriter from Imo state based in Lagos, Nigeria. In addition to writing all of her own music, Clay has written for other artists. Starting in 2011, Clay released her first official single, entitled: “Ogadisinma,” under the indie label “FLAMING MEDIA”. 

Honey Adum is a Benue born multiinstrumentalist, songwriter, composer and singer. He plays a blend of soul, reggae and highlife. He was a top five finalist at the recently concluded Nigerian Idol Season 2.

Auction Session: There will be an auction session. What do you get? Latest books that you can only find online. Hot CDs that are yet to be on the streets. There is also a surprise X auction item, come to find out. What are you waiting for? Let the bargaining begin. 

Also: 

• A platform for book lovers to meet, interact and network. 
• Freebies, lots of it. Let’s start with this. Invite five friends, ensure they come for the event and win a free book.
• Live Musical performances by: Christine and Clay

DATE: June 30, 2012

TIME: STRICTLY 2pm – 5pm

VENUE: Debonair Bookstore, 294, Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba.

RSVP Event here

The iREP Monthly Documentary Film Screening 
This comes up this Saturday, 30th of June, at the Nigerian Film Corporation, Ikoyi, by 2pm prompt, and this time, we bring you THE BIG SELLOUT. You can't afford to miss this.

Abuja Writers Forum

The dynamic duo of award-winning journalist and activist Chido Onumah and debutant novelist Richard Ali, will be the featured writers in the June 30 edition of the Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers’ Forum(AWF), which holds at Hamdala Plaza, Plot 23, Jimmy Carter Street, off Protea Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja.

The Guest Writer Session which started in June 2008 is generally regarded as the most consistent literary event in the country and has become the template for similar interventions, has this year already featured an interesting mix of writers including Uche Ezechukwu, Steve Okecha, Oyibo Ameh, K K Iloduba, Betty Abah and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.

Chido Onumah, whose latest book is Time to Reclaim Nigeria (Essays 2001-2011), has worked as a journalist in Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, and India. He has been involved for more than a decade in media training for professional journalists as well as promoting media and information literacy in Africa. He is currently coordinator of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Abuja, Nigeria. AFRICMIL is a pan-African centre dedicated to a new vision of media and information literacy as a key component in the education of young people in Africa. From 2002 to 2004, Onumah worked as Director of Africa programmes, Panos Institute, Washington, DC, U.S.A., helping journalists in West Africa, as well as the Caribbean, report in depth on issues that are frequently underreported or misreported — issues such as HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and ethnic and religious conflicts.

Richard Ali, whose debut novel, City of Memories, was published in May 2012 by Black Palms Publishers and has received generally warm reviews, hails from Idah in central Nigeria andwas born in Kano into the family of Mr. Adejo Ukwubile Ali, a Chartered Accountant, and his wife, Ajuma [nee Ocholi], a Grade II teacher, in the early 80’s.

The June 30, 2012 edition of the Guest Writer Session starts at 4pm and will include the usual side attractions of poetry performance, mini art exhibition, and a raffle-draw as well as live music. The Abuja Writer’s Forum meets three Sundays each month and hosts a reading on every last Saturday at the International Institute of Journalism, Hamdala Plaza, Jimmy Carter Street, Asokoro, Abuja.

Iread

Hope the week has started well for everyone. We thought to share some links of interesting articles that we stumbled upon. Have a great week!

 A review of Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention  by Manning Marable 

Mr. Marable argues that Malcolm X was a gifted performer, adept at presenting himself to black audiences “as the embodiment of the two central figures of African-American folk culture, simultaneously the hustler/trickster and the preacher/minister.” He also suggests that Malcolm exaggerated his criminal youth in his “Autobiography” to create “an allegory documenting the destructive consequences of racism within the U.S. criminal justice and penal system,” and to underscore the transformative power that the Nation of Islam brought to his own life while in prison.

"Miss Lora" by Junot Diaz in the New Yorker

Of course you knew her; she lived in the building behind, taught over at Sayreville H.S. But it was only in the past months that she’d snapped into focus. There were a lot of these middle-aged single types in the neighborhood, shipwrecked by every kind of catastrophe, but she was one of the few who didn’t have children, who lived alone, who was still kinda young. Something must have happened, your mother speculated. In her mind, a woman with no child could be explained only by vast untrammelled calamity

Belinda Otas Interviews Angelique Kidjo

My father used to say because you are a singer doesn’t mean you don’t have a brain and can’t discuss everything that comes your way. Read, be curious and ask questions. If I don’t have the answers, I will go and get the answers for you. But you cannot be an artist and not be able to talk about your art or other people’s art and culture. That’s not going to happen under my roof. Everything I accomplished today started in my childhood.

Nze Sylva's short story "Dodan Barracks" on Nigerianstalk Lit Mag 

That night it rained. The thunder claps were quite loud and the lightening splashed across the room, making it feel like it was day time. I was sitting in front of the television, fighting off fear from the lightening as I watched the match between Italy and Argentina when suddenly I began to hear sporadic gun fire. Gun fire was normal on the barrack but this was an usual hour for it and it was so loud and continued for a while. Mother immediately woke up like someone who had just had a nightmare and resumed mumbling prayers on the rosary, saying “Jesus” loudly each time the guns boomed. I thought perhaps it was some kind of foreign aggression as the Head of State had made many enemies especially among the world powers and I imagined that they had attacked us. I was very worried about Father being out there.

How Fortune Smiled on Fortunatus by Samuel Kolawole 

Fortunatus Osifo-Whiskey was seized by the police while playing checkers, and clamped into detention with no money in his pocket.  He was hooked by the hem of his trousers and whisked away so fast he wasn’t allowed to put on the pair of flip-flops he had slipped off before the game started. For him, removing his slippers, made of strips of an abandoned Michelin tire, had a way of making his blood warm to the game. It gave him a sense of seriousness and determination.

Fortunatus played draughts all day. He played draughts every day. People placed bets on him. Champions from other districts came to challenge him. As a matter of fact that was the only thing he succeeded at. But then he had tried his hands on so many things to make something good for himself.  He cherished deceptive hopes. He nursed lofty dreams and newfangled ideas. Sometimes he would take long walks, thinking deep, born aloft by wild fantasies. He would make plans of grandiose proportions that never materialized. Fortunatus could never bring himself to follow anything through. His hypertensive father had long left him to his own devises and his mother was not alive to bewail his situation.

He tried in vain to pass his school certificate exams and so could not proceed to any higher institution. Whenever he failed he blamed the educational system.

“They messed up my grades those bastards! They destroy our education and then send their kids to expensive schools abroad” he would say to his friends who also idled about. 

Read more short stories on the Short Story Africa Day website

Jonathan Duncan's review of Wainaina's One Day I Will Write about this Place

Writing on depression in Africa is a rarity. Here, Wainaina’s book seems singular. While at a South African university studying commerce, Wainaina’s equilibrium alters dramatically. His unevenness sees his tight rope walker plunge, as he “moves out of the campus dorms and into a one-room outhouse [falling] away from everything and everybody”. Within this room he barely leaves, the scope of the writer-camera adjusts to macro. The scenes thickly stick to objects surrounding him, bound in vignettes

Grant for Filmmakers

In its continuing effort to promote original storytelling by individuals from around the world, the Global Film Initiative is pleased to announce a Call for Applications for the Summer 2012 cycle of its narrative feature film production grants program.

Applications are accepted for feature-length, narrative film projects in all stages of production by directors from eligible nations of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania. Applications may be submitted from May 15, 2012 through July 16, 2012, and granting decisions are announced in October 2012.*

APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 16, 2012
*For Applications, Eligibility Requirements and Granting Guidelines, please visit: www.globalfilm.org/granting.htm

About the Granting Program
The Global Film Initiative's Granting Program awards fifteen to twenty grants per year, of up to $10,000 each, to filmmakers whose work exhibits artistic excellence, authentic self-representation and accomplished storytelling. Funds received from grants are used to support completion of film production and to subsidize post-production costs such as laboratory and sound mixing fees, and access to advanced editing systems.

Since the Initiative's founding in 2002, the Granting Program has awarded 122 grants to filmmakers worldwide. Grant recipients include:

• BEATRIZ'S WAR (A GUERRA DA BEATRIZ), dir. Bety Reis, East Timor
  First locally produced and directed narrative feature film from East Timor. GFI grant awarded in 2011.
• THE MIRROR NEVER LIES, dir. Kamila Andini, Indonesia
  Awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2012 Hong Kong International Film Festival. GFI honorable mention awarded in 2011.
• MISS LOVELY, dir. Ashim Ahluwalia, India
  Official Selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard). GFI grant awarded in 2010.
• LA RUTA DE LA LUNA, dir. Juan Sebastián Jácome, Panama
  World Premiere at the 2012 International Film Festival Panama. GFI honorable mention awarded in 2011.

For more information about the Granting Program, please visit: www.globalfilm.org/programs.htm

Questions about our Granting Program? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)page

GOI Peace Essay Competition

As today's young people are crucial for the shaping of our future, it is imperative that they are enabled to develop to their full potential. UNESCO's objective is to help empower young people, reaching out to them, responding to their expectations and ideas, and fostering useful and long-lasting skills. This annual essay contest is organized in an effort to harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world's youth in promoting a culture of peace and sustainable development. It also aims to inspire society to learn from the young minds and to think about how each of us can make a difference in the world.

THEME:

"Creating the Future We Want" Future begins with the vision we hold now. What kind of future do you wish to create for yourself and the world? Please share your dream and ideas for making it a reality.

GUIDELINES:

1. Essays may be submitted by anyone up to 25 years old (as of June 30, 2012) in one of the following age categories:

a) Children (ages up to 14) b) Youth (ages 15 - 25)

2. Essays must be 800 words or less in English, French, Spanish or German; or 1600 characters or less in Japanese, typed or printed.

3. Essays must have a cover page indicating

(1) category (Children or Youth) (2) essay title (3) your name (4) address (5) phone number (6) e-mail (7) nationality (8) age as of June 30, 2012 (9) gender (10) school name (if applicable) (11) word count.

Teachers and youth directors may submit a collection of essays from their class or group. Please enclose a list of participants' names and the name and contact information of the submitting teacher or director.

* Entries missing any of the above information will not be considered.

4. Entries may be submitted by postal mail or online

DEADLINE: Entries must be received by June 30, 2012.

More information here

Introducing Caravan

The Caravan has been shaped as India’s first narrative journalism magazine a la The New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books in United States, and Granta and Prospect in the UK.  It is a change from the linear ways of reporting, a change from impersonal, dry facts, to a narrative story with perspective.

We do not want to simply report the news, or offer the reader pedestrian opinions taking off from current affairs. We want to tell interesting and important stories through rich detail, insightful reporting and smart commentary. While political and social developments shall remain the backbone of this endeavour, the content will span many areas of interest, such as travel, science, environment, education, business, cinema, theatre and music.

And you can submit to them too:  Please send your pitches to editor.thecaravan@delhipress.in. Documents should be sent as attachments. For photo essays, attach low-res files to the pitch email. The Caravan accepts submissions by post or email. Address postal submission to relevant section at:
The Caravan Magazine
Delhi Press Building
E-3, Jhandewalan Estate
Rani Jhansi Road
New Delhi, India—110055

All the best!

Goethe-Institut presents "N65"

Goethe-Institut Nigeria invites you to the photography exhibition "N65" opening on Saturday, 16.06.2012, at 3:00 pm. at Goethe-Institut Nigeria, City Hall, Catholic Mission Street, opp.  Holy Cross Cathedral, Lagos Island

Goethe-Institut Nigeria is presenting the latest exhibition of the young Nigerian photographer Aderemi Adegbite, entitled "N65".  This exhibition is a photography documentation of the protests during the fuel subsidy removal that took place in January 2012. 

The exhibition officially opens on Saturday 16th of June, 2012 at 3 pm and is still at the institute till 29th of June, 2012.

RSVP the event here. Entrance is free!

Vote for "N65"
The ‘N65’ photograph (above) has been selected as one of the five semi-finalists in the “Emerging Human Rights Defenders” category in the World Youth Movement for Democracy’s second annual photo contest. It’s the voting time; please support Deremi's work and  vote “Picture 3” as the best in the list. Vote here. The winner will be announced on June 29th.

Creative Wings Short Story Contest

The second edition of the Creative Wings Short Story Contest has been announced. The ‘Creative Wings Short Story Prize’ was endowed in 2011, by the Executive Director of Ugreen Foundation, Obinna Udenwe. The Prize will accept entries from all African writers residing anywhere in the world. BookaholicBlog will publish the shortlisted and winning stories. 

THE PRIZES

1st Prize – Fifteen (15) books and all expenses paid trip to Sen. Chris. Nwankwo Youth Creativity Class in March, 2013.

The Dancing Bird by Obinna Udenwe (autographed copy),

Wizard of the Crow Ngugi wa Thiong’O, The Abyssinian Boy by Onyeka Nwelue (autographed copy), Bloody Path to Freedom Chuks Okolo (autographed copy), The Readers by Benhard Schlinks, The Phoenix by Chika Unigwe, Money Galore by Amu Djoleto, Cemetery Road by Esiaba Irobi , Songs of Enchantment by Ben Okri, Olauda Equiano Autobiography , Beyond The Ancient Hills by Celestine Awoke (autographed), The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’sWives by Lola Shoneyin, From the Caves of Rotten Teeth by A. Igoni Barrett, Night of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan, Waiting for an Angel Helon Habila.

2nd Prize – Five books and all expenses paid trip to Sen. Chris. Nwankwo Youth Creativity Class in March, 2013.

The Dancing Bird Obinna Udenwe (autographed), The Other Side of the Mask Esiaba Irobi (autographed by Abic), Matigari Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Beyond The Ancient Hills Celestine Awoke (autographed) and Assegai Wilbur Smith.

The books will be couriered to the winners anywhere they are in the world. Nigeria resident winners get an opportunity to attend the Sen. Chris. Nwankwo Youth Creativity Class in March, 2013. Ugreen Foundation will cover transportation costs (round trip), accommodation for five nights and meals, including N30, 000 honorarium,(including tours round the state and evenings of cocktails). If the winner(s) resides outside Nigeria and wants to attend, Ugreen Foundation will provide all of the above mentioned, excluding cost of air-travel into and out of Nigeria. The program holds annually in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi state capital.

GUIDELINES

1. Entry is free and must not be more than 600 words long.

2. Entrant must not be more than 40 years old.

3. Only one submission per entrant is permitted. Stories must be original work of the entrant and previously published works will not be accepted for the Prize.

4. Only online submissions are acceptable. Entries should be emailed to creativewingscontest2012@gmail.com. Paste story on the body of the e-mail and Use ‘Creative Wings Contest’ in the subject line. Entries with attachments will be disqualified.

5. The email must contain the entrant’s name, the title of story, and the entrant’s physical address, a brief bio of NOT more than 50 words, Date of Birth, and contact phone number.

6. Simultaneous submissions are NOT acceptable and Writers are not restricted to any theme.

7. Entries must be in English ONLY. Previous winners are eligible but must apply with a different story.

8. Shortlisted entrant must agree to provide us with his/her photograph and agree to allow Ugreen Foundation and all the Prize publicists use the photograph for publicity.

DEADLINE

Entries are open from June 1st to 12 Midnight July 31st.

JUDGES

1. Myne Whitman, Author of bestselling romance novels, A Heart to Mend (2009) and A Love Rekindled (2011). She lives in Seatle, United States of America.

2. Onyeka Nwelue is a novelist, short story writer, poet, filmmaker and journalist. Nwelue’s first novel is the 2009 bestseller, The Abyssinian Boy, which critics hailed as ‘out-of-the-box’. 

3. Jayne Bauling. Award winning writer resident in South Africa.

FOR MORE INFORMATION – www.ugreenfoundation.org

Quotes...On Writing

The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any. - Russell Baker

Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success. - James Baldwin

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one...he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent. - Honore de Balzac

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous- Robert Benchley

Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.- Thomas Berger

He was such a bad writer, they revoked his poetic license.- Milton Berle

Questions...on Setting

The Ondaatje prize, goes to the "book of the highest literary merit – fiction, non-fiction, poetry – evoking the spirit of a place. Setting is very important in writing, it does not matter whether they are real or imagined.

Many Nigerian (African) writers have written convincingly about different Nigerian cities.

Tell us, which is your favourite African writer that has written about a place? Where? Why? How did the portrayal of the place do to you?

Happy new week!

Paressia's First Triplets

City of Memories by Richard Ali

City of Memories follows four characters negotiating the effect of various traumas. Towering above them is the story of Ummi al-Qassim, a princess of Bolewa, and the feud that attended her love—first for a nobleman, then for a poet—a feud that bequeaths her with madness and death. All four are bracketed by the modern city of Jos in Central Nigeria, where political supremacy and perverse parental love become motives for an ethno-religious eruption calculated to destroy the Nigeria State.

A thwarted love affair forces Faruk to flee to the Northeastern village of Bolewa, from where his parents emigrated three decades earier. There, he unearths his mother's tragic story and discovers the key that just might keep his country one—if he can make it back to Central Nigeria alive.

The Whispering Trees By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim

The Whispering Trees, award winning writer Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s debut collection of short stories, employs nuance, subtle drama and deadpan humour to capture colourful Nigerian lives.

There’s Kyakkyawa, who sparks forbidden thoughts in her father and has a bit of angels and witches in her; there’s the mysterious butterfly girl who just might be a incarnation of Ohikwo’s long dead mother; there’s also a flummoxed white woman caught between two Nigerian brothers and an unfolding scandal, and, of course, the two medicine men of Mazade who battle against their egos, an epidemic and an enigmatic witch.

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim was born in Jos and has been writing for as long as he can remember. He won the BBC African Performance Prize in 2007 and the ANA Plateau/Amatu Braide Prize for Prose in 2008. He is currently the Arts Editor of one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers.

Farad By Emmanuel Iduma

Farad, named for the unit of an electrical charge, is a novella that cuts laser-like through a multilayered society. Touching biographies of ordinary citizens—young academics and ageing psychologists, Christian editors and call girls, strange women and music artistes—told in stylish, interrupted narratives, are woven into a detailed mosaic of modern Nigeria.

Reminiscent of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, Farad eases to a climax when key characters from individual stories become participants in a conflict at a University Chapel—a conflict in which the nature of power is tested. Farad is an assemblage of fresh narratives woven around simple questions and open-ended complexities. It is, ultimately, a story of love and essence.

From next week, expect more from these writers, these books here. 

Introducing: Climate of Change

Today is the World Environment Day. Climate of Change is a new play that captures the issues around environmental issues in Nigeria. 

Climate of Change is a snapshot of rural dwellers’ struggle for survival and integral development in a climate-constrained world. The play demystifies climate change by situating it within the existential realities of our society. Bagada, the setting of this play, is fraught with problems of diseases, hunger and conflict, arising from the impacts of climate change on livelihoods, while the political class feed fat on the ignorance and weakness of the people through corruption and high-handedness.

The play also underscores some of the injustices women face in our society today. But, rather than simply lament the plight of women by portraying them as mere passive victims, the play shows that women are also effective change agents and repositories of valuable knowledge that could engender societal development. By painting a picture of the vulnerabilities of women in our society, this play does not aim to reinforce binary oppositions between men and women, but rather seeks to accentuate the symbiotic relationship that should exist between both sexes—a relationship that has our shared humanity as its common denominator. 

A drama of despair and hope, of death and life, Climate of Change advocates change if the ills of society are to be addressed. Change is thus a telling metaphor on the environmental issue of climate change as well as a proactive medium for transforming society. In effect, since the physical climate is changing, the mental climate of the people must also change.

Meet the Author

 Elaigwu Ameh is a creative writer, social analyst and development communicator.  In July 2005, he won the Arrupe College Book Prize for graduating with a First Class BA (Hons) Degree in Philosophy from the University of Zimbabwe. He is now in line for his MA in Development Communication at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. After working as a journalist and information officer for some organisations, he now serves as the Coordinator of Theatre for Concerted Change, a non-profit organisation geared towards enhancing grassroots development through participatory communication and development-oriented theatre. His publications include poems, short stories, social commentaries and academic essays. His short story, "Vagina Protest," won the 2010 Centre for Human Development/Ford Foundation Writing Competition (prose category). Climate of Change is his first play.

The International Radio Playwriting Competition

The International Radio Playwriting Competition is run by the BBC World Service and the British Council, in partnership with Commonwealth Writers and is now in its 23rd year It is a competition for anyone resident outside Britain, to write a 53-minute radio drama for up to six characters.

There are two categories: one for writers with English as their first language and one for writers with English as their second language.

The two winners will come to London and see their play made into a full radio production, which will then be broadcast on the BBC World Service. They will also each receive a £2,000 prize and there are certificates for runners-up. The play must be in English, unpublished and must not have been previously produced in any medium. Whether you're experienced, new, or somewhere in between, we want to hear from you.

More info here. If you have never written a radio play, there is no need to fret, you can listen to past winning stories on the website. All the best!

Mark Your Calendar

On the 5th of June, 2012, as we mark the World Environment Day, Nigerian Painting Tour in conjunction with the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment invites outdoor painters and enthusiasts to join in a free-for-all plein air session at The Muri Okunola Park (Near Law School, Victoria Island).

Interested? kindly send an email to Femi on adedeji.femi@gmail.com or Nojeem on nojeemmuse@yahoo.com. It will be a time to explore our environment in living colours!

You remember the owuro lojo crooner, or the face in the picture, he will be performing in Ikeja in June. It will be fun!
Date: Sunday, June 10
Venue: EniObanke Arts Centre, 19 Adekunle Fajuyi Way, Ikeja GRA, Lagos
Time: 5pm prompt
Fee: N1500 (Children below the age of 13 get free entry)
Tickets available before the date at 19 Adekunle Fajuyi Way, Ikeja GRA or call 08034549778
www.beautifulnubia.com

Another Way Of Love by Robert Browning

I.

June was not over
Though past the fall,
And the best of her roses
Had yet to blow,
When a man I know
(But shall not discover,
Since ears are dull,
And time discloses)
Turned him and said with a man's true air,
Half sighing a smile in a yawn, as 'twere,---
``If I tire of your June, will she greatly care?''

II.

Well, dear, in-doors with you!
True! serene deadness
Tries a man's temper.
What's in the blossom
June wears on her bosom?
Can it clear scores with you?
Sweetness and redness.
_Eadem semper!_
Go, let me care for it greatly or slightly!
If June mend her bower now, your hand left unsightly
By plucking the roses,---my June will do rightly.

III.

And after, for pastime,
If June be refulgent
With flowers in completeness,
All petals, no prickles,
Delicious as trickles
Of wine poured at mass-time,---
And choose One indulgent
To redness and sweetness:
Or if, with experience of man and of spider,
June use my June-lightning, the strong insect-ridder,
And stop the fresh film-work,---why, June will consider.

Robert Browning's poem is from Poem Hunter. May the month bring you good tidings! And yes, have a restful weekend.