The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has launched a new literary prize named the ANA/Awele Ilusanmi Book Promotion Award. The award will give N100,000 each to the first-place winners in three ANA Award categories: Poetry, Fiction, and Drama, amounting to a total of N300,000 in prizes. The initiative is designed to strengthen incentives for Nigerian writers and improve recognition within the literary community. Awele Ilusanmi, after whom the award is named, is a noted literary advocate whose support has made the prize possible. The announcement was made during ANA's annual planning meeting in Ibadan. Winners will be announced alongside the existing ANA Awards later this year.
Awele Ilusanmi's backing of the new ANA prize shows how private support is filling gaps public institutions ignore. With N300,000 spread across three categories, the award offers modest but meaningful encouragement to writers who often publish without financial reward. While the amount won't transform careers, it signals that recognition beyond prestige is possible. For Nigerian authors, this shift could slowly reshape how literature is valued in the cultural economy.
