₦airaland Forum

tianshie:
Kwani? . . . Edited by Binyavanga Wainaina

Isn't this a magazine/journal and not a book?

[center]Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins $500,000.00 Genius Grant[/center]

Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, winner of the Orange Prize, is one of 25 recipients of the 2008 MacArthur Fellowship.

Also known as the “genius grant”, this annual award given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to a few select citizens or residents of the USA is worth $500 000 support over five years with no strings attached.

Recipients of any age and working in any field, who “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work” are nominated anonymously. Recipients are offered the opportunity to accelerate their current activities or take their work in new directions.

“The MacArthur Fellows Program celebrates extraordinarily creative individuals who inspire new heights in human achievement,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton. “With their boldness, courage, and uncommon energy, this new group of Fellows, men and women of all ages in diverse fields, exemplifies the boundless nature of the human mind and spirit.”

Chimamanda Adichie is a young writer who illuminates the complexities of human experience in works inspired by events in her native Nigeria. Adichie explores the intersection of the personal and the public by placing the intimate details of the lives of her characters within the larger social and political forces in contemporary Nigeria.

Chimamanda Adichie is a young writer who illuminates the complexities of human experience in works inspired by events in her native Nigeria. Adichie explores the intersection of the personal and the public by placing the intimate details of the lives of her characters within the larger social and political forces in contemporary Nigeria. Dividing her time over the last decade between the United States and Nigeria, she is widely appreciated for her stark yet balanced depiction of events in the post-colonial era. In her most recent novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Adichie unflinchingly portrays the horror and destruction of the civil war following the establishment of the Republic of Biafra. Using multiple narrative voices, a precise movement back and forth in time, and prose that is at once witty and empathetic, she immerses the reader in the psyches of her characters, whose loyalties to each other and their ideals are tested as their world gradually falls apart. In humanizing the Biafran tragedy, Adichie’s novel has enriched conversation about the war within Nigeria while also offering insight into the circumstances that lead to ethnic conflict. A writer of great promise, Adichie’s powerful rendering of the Nigerian experience is enlightening audiences both in her homeland and around the world.

[culled from: http://news.book.co.za/blog/2008/09/23/african-novelist-wins-500-000-genius-grant/#more-697 ; and from  http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4536885/ ]


This is a real incentive to work hard and excel in your field. . . lucky bugger.

@Dnex, what happened to your Denex ID? Did you get banned?

emmeno on August 29, 2008 at 01:01 PM:
*Now the Concept of this Book is to make everybody have their own part in writing and see how we end a story, any story. All you have to do is continue from where the above writer stopped. JUST WRITE TWO MEANINGFUL SENTENCES PLEASE*
*So i'm going to start 1st.*

After laying down the rules and saying contribute TWO sentences, even the original poster seems confused on the form of the so called "novel". Typical Naija mentality. . . "Ignore the rules and make your own".

@ Seun,

I believe you never stated when the winner would be announced and the prize awarded. Or is this supposed to be a competition where you will read the entries at your own leisure?

Sisikill:
Lawd-a-mercy!! Even the White house people didn't do this much delibration before evading Iraq!!

Eh, don't you mean[b] invading[/b]? The Iraqi's would have sure been happy if the Americans had evaded their country.

What is it they say about sarcasm and wit again?

Next!

Sisikill:
I'm sure I need not tell you to ignore the put downs or mocking of your work. . . apart from the fact that it is just childish pettiness at play here, please also understand that OCD. . . no matter how weird the focus of the obsession, is still a disease. Some go nut if bathroom towels are not hung according to size, shapes and/or color, some freak out if they walk into a room and shoes aren't properly lined against the wall and according to sizes, and for others, it takes seeing a poem in the novel section to throw a wrench into their day. Like I said, OCD is OCD is OCD.

Na you sabi. I have said what I will on the topic. If you don't like it too friggin' bad. If it suits your purpose, you can label it OCD, if you like you, can even attribute it to PMT (PMS), na your wahala be that. I am perfectly within my rights to raise a valid issue and I have. Moreover, I will continue to do so when I see something wrong that bothers me. It is one thing if a genuine error was made, but it is another when the poster knows better. Anyone who looks at the first page of the literature childboard today with see roughly half a dozen poems splattered there, when there is a poetry childboard. Obviously, subtle hints and gentle reminders do not work very much on here, and frankly I'm not even going to bother with those anymore.

Sisikill:
My God, one would think a donated organ has been misfiled and someone's life hangs on the balance with the reaction over a poem being posted on another part of the literature section. I was on the Romance section earlier and some guy started a thread on how he can't get his Pe/nis to go down, a topic clearly meant for the sexuality section and no one had a melt down. You know what else, the guy knew he was posting in the wrong place because he started off with "On the SEXUALITY thread, a guy was talking about. . . . " yet I did not see heads exploding over it.

And people wonder why Nigeria has gone to the dogs. I have never heard a dumber excuse for people breaking rules. Because no one made a big deal in the Romance Section, people who make a big deal here have some disorder or the other. What a constructive way to reason.

So go ahead and call it OCD if you like, or call it exploding head syndrome or any other thing you like, I will continue to voice out my displeasure at people who abuse simple posting rules in this section (and I will not do so in a soft cuddly manner too).  Maybe if Nigerians had taken a stance in dealing with the little problems when they arose instead of ignoring them, the big ones would not have been given room to develop (and there would be no institutional indiscipline, nor disdain and disregard for easy unambiguous rules).

@ nanaboi, I am sure it is just as easy to post a poem in the POEM section where it belongs. There is a reason why all subjects under the sun are not just lumped together in one section. And there is a reason why the Poem Child Board was created [SO THAT POEMS ARE POSTED THERE not here], but seeing that you have posted there before, I'm sure you already know that.

@ Seun Osewa, When I want to read poems, I will go to the Poem Child Board. It is annoying to continually click threads and have subjects which do not belong in that section open up. It's about time you imposed penalties/sanctions for people who flagrantly decide to ignore posting rules by delibrately posting in the wrong section. If you know you cannot be bothered with monitoring the literature section, then merge the poetry section with the main literature section, so that we all know that we can expect to see crappy poetry every so often.

Orikinla:
Yes.
I actually took up their case and copied the universities of the professors associated with them. Then, their attorney wrote me with a threat to take me to court for libel.

They are playing on the intelligence of innocent millions who want to see their words in print.

Any update on the threatened lawsuit?

@ Soi,

It belongs in the Poem Section

@ Poster,

While this is poetry and belongs in the Poem Section, I'd say I think an appropriate title for your poem is "Lingering On" or "Lingering Presence"

Poetry Section please

For Pete's sake, there is a Poem section for all poetry.

@Ch3coo, Sisikill said something about rhythm as to why she liked the poem but none of the other two did give a reason. But like I said, nobody needs to give a reason. It may be more desirable to do so, but should not be a reason for chastisement if one doesn't.

And it was Malcolm X who said "If you have no critics you'll likely have no success" and Aristotle who said "Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing" and S. Clark who said "It is easy to flatter and massage peoples ego but takes guts to to stand up to them and criticise".

There are always quotes that can be found to support one point or the other no matter how absurd they may be (they are simply that, mere quotes by famous people and not binding forces of law).

CH3COO:
Lol @ this jokester, it's like you found the perfect phrase to describe yourself. The most glaring point you proved thus far is that you are intellectually handicapped. Clap for yourself. Are you forgetting that insults are your forte? I don't think you reason before typing. Your insults are hardly significant to me. I almost pissed my pants laughing when I read your post; if anything it is comical. You are being a troll, and are making a complete brainless fool out of yourself. Nagging like a little boy, throwing a fit because you can't have your way about something. For the sake of staying on topic, I will ignore your disjointed insult-riddled posts and honor the girl's topic. I beg you to stop. You are just about irritating everyone now; vomitting and crying unconsolably all over the place. It's sad to see an adult behave in this manner.

LOL. Now even I thought that was funny. I was even more amused that the deluded man has practically accused me of plagiarising his posts. Heaven knows I have no idea what on earth he is on about as most of my time on Nairaland is spent on the literature section and the people whose posts I follow are doyens of the literature section like Orikinla, SMC and Ndipe. Pity they hardly appear here nowadays (probably because the place is overrun by unintelligent rants like those witnessed above).

Once again, in the spirit of good conscience, ignore the performing masquerade and let's get back on track.

@ Wildbubble, I am not sure about others (as I can only speak for myself), but I do not think your "poem" or "piece" elicited feelings of irritation. Someone else may be responsible for such feelings. I just thought it was not very good, that's all.

It is a fact of life that people who have limited powers of articulation often (in the absence of little or no provocation) resort to verbal abuse and profanities. And this is clearly evident here.

I doubt Wildbubble would appreciate anyone resorting to verbal violence on her behalf. In good conscience, everyone should please ignore Chukky76. This is the literature section and we do not need uncouth behaviours here.

I do not understand why things have degenerated to this extent. Over time I have always been irritated by people who say that critics should give a reason for their negative feedback especially when most of the time, nobody asks gushing sycophants why they have left "I love it" or "It is great" or "you are gifted" kind of feedback. What exactly do they love? Is it the rhyming sequence? Is it the poetic licence? Is it the narrative verse? Is it the Iambic pentameter? What exactly is admired?

While it may be useful for a writer to get a reason for a particular feedback, it is not mandatory in a forum like this that the person who leaves a feedback must give reasons or expantiate or even give any tips/advice as to how the writer can improve his/her work.

So it may be said that Ch3coo is not a particularly polite person when criticising another person's work, that is his problem and since he has not overtly insulted people with his criticism, the best thing would be to ignore what he says if you do not like it. There is no need to go calling him a "dumb Bleep" and all such names. And there is no need for all these long epistles. Let us at least try to be civil.

Back to the topic, I think the poem (if that is what it is) is not particularly good.

stillwater:
Maybe he meant 1908.

LOL, that would make him the oldest man on Nairaland and this the poem written by the oldest poet here.

nanaboi:
To uncrown me; unscalp me
unsuture my mesh;
scoop half my grey,
my thick skull cap for plate
- so she seeks, celestial
hot nought -
To make us half mad. Full mad,
she unmakes us in Jimeta
long before noon.

June,08
Yola.

Question - How could this have been written in June 2008 when we are still in May 2008? [Just asking - no be fight o.]

lifeithink:
"wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?"

I do remember this from way back when. This was the earliest/original version of the idiom that wa traced to the 16th century [I think]. But yeah, in yesteryears language it is you can't eat your cake nad have it.

Thanks for the memory.

lifeithink:
please let's not forget "you can't have your cake and eat it?", in the words of Jay Z "if i got cake what the f*ck am i supposed to do?", darling Nigerians got so irritated by it that it's been twisted to "you can't eat your cake and have it", hehehe much better

Actually, the original expression is "you can't eat your cake and have it". Misguided and often confused people (failing to get the intention behind the saying) are known to misquote the idiom as 'you can't have your cake and eat it'.   Moreover, it was not Nigerians who reversed (or as you say, twisted) the idiom.