Hopefully, you are the next overall winner. But if you miss it, I won't.

To make it happen, I've written two exquisite stories – yours and mine.

Now, the only thing required of you is to fill in an entry form, using your details (It takes less than 5 minutes to do that).

Here is a link to the form: www.commonwealthwriters.org/submit-an-entry/

For the umpteenth time, a Nigerian came among the 5 regional winners of the 2017 prizes. But just as the judges got to table to decide who wears the crown for the overall position, it became a toss-up between Nigeria and Trinidad.

After what looked like days of diligent considerations, the judges tilted towards Trinidad.

Akwaeke Emezi, a Nigerian, came home with £2,500 prize money for African region.

"But why......., how could you have chosen silver over gold, eh Akwaeke?" I asked her recently. She smiled and said, "Well, I shot for the stars but I landed on the moon".

Lol.. that was the sarcastic me. Akwaeke is a nice writer and she really did well on that short fiction.

I've never participated in the commonwealth annual competition and when I checked their history, I learnt that no Nigerian has ever won the overall prize. The much we have gotten is the regional prize for Africa, which is not easy anyway.

Well, I think it's time to bring that overall prize home.

For the 2018 competition which is open for submission of entries between 1 September to 1 November this year, I wrote 2 top-notch stories, with the intention to make 2 entries. But at the point of entry, I was told that each participant is only eligible for 1 entry.

http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/our-projects/the-short-story/

Both stories are equally intriguing.

I've submitted 1 already and I'm here to give out the other to whomever that cares. It's a 5k-word fiction.

It's 100% original, of course, you can use some free software to confirm that.

NOTE: it's not free. You just have to do a little thing to appreciate my sleepless nights.

Excerpt from page 7 of the story:

Erimeri had a mouth that yearned for every sweet thing but hands that brought none. Whether people celebrated or mourned, he was always the uninvited guest to every gathering where food and drink swung to. People soon started calling him vulture owing to his penchant for receiving without giving. But those people were not entirely correct because Erimeri freely gave his tuneful voice each time the dead was being lowered to the grave. He sang the dirge better than anybody within the living memory and none came close to his huge repertoire. So touching was his voice that even the stone-hearted men rarely held back their tears.

But he got no special reward for singing dirge. It only made him feel important in the eyes of men and this enabled him to feast with them. On few occasions though, the hosts, of their own volition, would thank him, at the end of the occasion, with a generous portion of food and palm wine from the remnants and he would go home happy.

On this fateful Monday, he was leading a burial song at Egbema village when the news broke that someone just slumped and died at the market square. Erimeri turned to a man standing next to him and whispered delightfully, "the land is fed and so are our stomachs for we are on one breadfruit, yet another has fallen".

When the same man returned the whisper, moments later, that this new breadfruit was Erimeri's mother, he broke down in tears and wailed so pitifully. His anguish was more of a man who lost a means of livelihood than a loving mother because for a man who doesn't lift a finger to work, death of a hard working mother means more.

So I'm giving this fiction to you. Win that prize and make Nigeria proud.

The money on its own may not actually move you that much, but I believe the recognition and publicity that come with it are things to shoot for.

Going by the CBN's official exchange rate of £1 = N472.65, £5,000 will give you a total of N2,363,250.00 while £2,500 gives you a half of that.

2017 WINNERS

Ingrid Persaud from Trinidad won the overall prize of £5,000


For Africa, Akwaeke Emezi won £2,500 for her story "Who is Like God" – she is a Nigerian.


For Asia, Anushka Jasraj won £2,500 for his story "Drawing Lessons"


For Canada and Europe, Tracy Felis got £2,500 for her story "The Naming of Moths"


For Caribbean, Ingrid Persaud got £2,500 for the story "The Sweet Sop"


For Trinidad and Tobago Pacific, Nat Newman won £2,500 for his story "The Death of Margaret Roe"

Reach me for the manuscript: 08038085317 (call, whatsapp)

Regards

could be you!

Still available

Still here