DKA awards cash prizes to three talented writers

To encourage and drive creative writing in the country, the DKA Creative Writers Network has awarded cash prizes to three talented writers.

The writers were finalists of the maiden edition of the DKA Annual Short Story Writing Competition, with each awarded N400,000. Blessing Paul Ajayi, Blessing Olatoberu and Happiness Kolade emerged from a long and subsequent shortlist of talented fiction writers to grab the winning slots in the keenly contested writing competition.

“Writers deserve to be recognized and rewarded for their craft,” David Agunbiade, founder of the DKA Creative Writers’ Network, who is also a creative writer and currently working on his debut novel.

Added to his love for writing fiction, Agunbiade is a spoken word artist and a Ph.D. student in creative and critical writing. Agunbiade also mentors young and aspiring writers under the aegis of the FictionbyDavid Mentorship Initiative for Young Writers, which runs for a 90-day cycle.

Resonant with his vision to offer a platform to talented African writers to showcase their craft yet struggle to make that transition from scripted works to the shelves, he recently founded Fiction by David Publishers.

It is set to commence with inviting manuscripts from prospective authors in the second half of 2024. This will include works of fiction and nonfiction.

The Creative Writers Network aims to promote and reward creative writers of African origin. To this end, DCWN held the maiden edition of their poetry competition in 2023, following which the sum of N150,000 was shared among three deserving finalists.

According to the organisation, they are upping the ante this year, with the sum of N500,000 to be shared with the three finalists of the DKA Annual Poetry Prize 2024 and a million naira among the three finalists of the DKA Short Story Writing Competition 2024.

DKA works closely with a dedicated team of professionals including Oby Olamma Nnadi, Obi Udensi, and Adenike Ola-Adeyemo, and together they make up team DKA.