The Lagos International Poetry Festival is an annual celebration that brings poets, writers, artists, and thinkers from across the world to Lagos for a week of conversations, readings, performances, workshops and adventure.
This year, the Lagos International Poetry Festival will be publishing an anthology of poems on the theme Wide Awake. Poetry entries are expected to interrogate new frontiers in the fight for social justice, gender and racial equality, sexual identity, and the need for vigilance in a post-truth era.
The anthology will feature 20 poets contributing 1 poem each. The poems will be selected and edited, following a call for entries by the judges, Dami Ajayi and Titilope Sonuga. Five poets with the most outstanding poems will receive a cash prize of ₦20,000 each, and a chance to read their poems at the opening ceremony of the Lagos International Poetry Festival.
Judges
Dami Àjàyí is a Nigerian poet, medical doctor, and music critic. His first collection of poems, Clinical Blues, was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize in 2012. In 2011, he was listed among the “Eight Young Nigerian Poets Whose Poems Delight” on the Sentinel UK Poetry Blog. Ajayi has written short stories that have been published in Nigeria and abroad. He currently provides critical reviews about Nigerian music to a number of online publications.
Titilope Sonuga is an award-winning poet, writer and performer. She was the winner of the 2011 Canadian Authors’ Association Emerging Writer Award for her first collection of poems. She was shortlisted for the Africa Center Artist in Residency (AIR) program in 2015. Her work has appeared in Brittle Paper, The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry, was translated into Italian for El-Ghibli Magazine, and into German for the Berlin International Poetry Festival.
Timeline
October 16th: Call out for Entries
October 17th: Announcement of judges
October 26th: Close of submissions
October 27th: Review of entries
November 1st: Announcement of successful entries (Top 20)
How to Submit Your Poem
To participate, write one poem based on one of the following themes:
– Social Justice
– Gender and Racial Equality
– Sexual Identity
– The need for vigilance in a post-truth era.
Note that it is free-form [No particular number of lines or stanzas. So feel free to be creative without restriction].
Submit your poem by publishing it as a book on OkadaBooks and including the hashtag, #LIPFest18 in your book title. See the thorough tutorial on submission below:
– Visit the OkadaBooks website
– Sign up if you do not have an account. If you do, Sign in
– Navigate to the sidebar and select PUBLISH
– Then Select CREATE YOUR STORY
– This takes you to the publication page. Ensure that you include #LIPFest18 in your title
– Fill in the details:
Author’s Name: [Your Name]
Category: Poetry
Tags: #LIPFest18
Description: Include the title of your poem.
Price: Set this as “0”
NOTE: Do NOT check the “Disable sale in Web Store” and “Adult (18+)” boxes
– Book Covers are not compulsory because your poems are the main focus of this contest; but if you have a book cover, please upload it. You can use Canva to create a very simple book cover containing only the title of your book and your name, like the one below:
– After filling in the details above, you will see two actions buttons: UPLOAD EPUB and CREATE EPUB. Please click on CREATE EPUB. When you do this, a text box will pop-up. Type in your poem, or simply copy and paste it in the text box
– After you have typed in or copied and pasted your poem, scroll to the end of the web page, and you will see three action buttons: PREVIEW (gives you a sneak peek of your book), SAVE (saves your unpublished book as draft in case you do not want to publish immediately) and PUBLISH (makes your book available in the store for download or purchase). Click on PUBLISH and you should get a confirmation that your book has been published, as shown in the screenshot below.
QUICK TIPS:
– To see the book in your dashboard
– To edit an already-published book, go to MY PUBLICATIONS, find the book and click on the pencil icon. This will take you to the publication page; make the changes. Afterwards, scroll to the end of the page and click on REPUBLISH.
If you have any questions, drop them in the comment section and you will get a response in less than 5 minutes!
GOODLUCK!
Should we publish the two poems separately or together?
Hi, I am so sorry for the misunderstanding. You are to Publish one poem, not two.
Are we to post both poems under one section or what?
Hi, I am so sorry for the misunderstanding. You are to Publish one poem, not two.
Is the competition limited to poets from Lagos Nigeria?
No, it isn’t
Meaning I as a South African writer can enter?
Yes, you can.
Should the single poem incorporate all the themes or can it be about just one or two?
You can pick one theme and write on it.
Is it two poems or just one?
Hello,
One poem please.
Can I write on just racial equality without diving into gender equality too?
Also, would it reduce my chances of winning?
Yes, you can
Thank you Martha.
Do i need to specify the theme i picked? and if i need to how do i so?
No, you don’t.
Just write your poem. The judges will figure out the theme you wrote on when they read your work.
So, Lagos work and wahala finally gave me the time out to submit my entry today. Martha, make sure I win o!
Must the poem be wholly in English language?
It is expected, but feel free to express yourself.
I’m not cleared. Can the poem include a line or two in indigenous or other tongues?
Yes, it can
Obrigado!
Are we to expect a notification after we have published to affirm our entries have been received
Yes, via email
can people living far away from lagos participate too?
And secondly is the “gender & racial equality topic” together? I mean can one decide to write on just gender equality or just racial equality as individual topics or thet must be together?
Hello,
People not living in Lagos can participate.
Also, the Gender and Racial equality theme can be separated.
Is today the 25th the last day of submissions??
It’s today, 26th.
Just heard of this what is the dead line time for submission today
Hello,
Submissions end by 11:59pm tonight
The two poems required should be submitted in two different books right?
Only 1 poem is required.
Hello Martha!
I saw a contestant’s BC calling asking people to download, review, and comment on her entry as it is ending today.
Are we to call for downloads, reviews, and comments??
No. Entries aren’t judged by number of downloads.
There are judges for the contest.
Hello Martha,
Today is 29th and the successful twenty entries will be announced today.
I want to know if it’s via email or on this platform?
Thank you.
Hello, the date for announcement has been extended. The new date will be communicated shortly.
The new date for the announcement of the top 20 poems is November 1st
Which time should we expect the replies
The date of announcement has been extended. The new one will be communicated shortly.
The new date for the announcement of the top 20 poems is November 1st
How are we to access the list of successful entries or know if our entries are successful. Would we be sent an email or are we to check online?
It’ll be announced on our Instagram page on 1st November
Hi Martha. It’s the first of November today and there’s no news about the successful entries yet. Has the date been postponed again?
Sorry for the delay o. It has been posted. See recent blog post
Where do we see the shortlisted / successful entries, is there a special site or what?
The top 20 will be announced on our Instagram page on November 1st
Hello please are the results still coming out today??
Yes, they will. Look out for them on our instagram page @okadabooks
Can I get the link to your instagram page
Here you go: http://www.instagram.com/okadabooks
Hello
Would the Top 20 still be announced today?
Yup! Already announced. See recent blog post.
please can you send the link?
Here it is: https://blog.okadabooks.com/lipfest18-top-entries/