Chika Unigwe, a Nigerian writer based in Belgium, has won the NLNG sponsored Nigerian prize for Literature, 2012.
Ms. Unigwe was announced winner of the literary award on Thursday 1 November at a world press conference held at the Ocean View Restaurant in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Chika won for her novel, On Black Sisters Street.
“What is striking about Chika Unigwe’s novel is the compassion that informs it,” Abiola Irele, chairman of Judges for the prize said.
The Chairman of the Advisory Banjo, announcing the winner, Ayo Banjo, Chairman of the Advisory Board said the book “is a work of outstanding merit.”
Chika will receive a $100 thousand dollars, the organizers said.
Her book beat others like Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Ngozi Achebe and Only a Canvas by Olusola Olugbesan to win the award.
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children.
She is the first foreign based Nigerian writer to win the NLNG prize which was hitherto reserved for locally based Nigerian writers.
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