Losing the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature: The Writers Must Receive Our Kindness by Obinna Udenwe
Every writer who submits a manuscript has already paid a price most readers never see: the months of solitude, the years of edits, the quiet negotiations with publishers, all before a single judge reads page one.
Obinna Udenwe reminds us of this in his piece on the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, and the reminder lands with weight. Writing is not just a craft, it is a sustained act of endurance. The idea has to be conceived, nurtured, and carried through a process that stretches across months and sometimes years, all while life continues to make its own demands on a writer's time.
When a prize is lost, what is also lost, at least momentarily, is the invisible labour behind the work. The finalist who does not take home the award still gave the same hours. The story still cost the same quiet.
That is why Udenwe's argument for extending genuine kindness to writers in these moments is one worth sitting with. Competition sharpens the literary world, yes, but so does grace.
Originally published by Brittle Paper.