Shortlisted Entries: Remi Raji At 50 Poetry Competition

AT LAST SYNW RELEASES SHORTLISTED ENTRIESREMI RAJI @ 50 POETRY COMPETITION

SHORTLISTED ENTRIES

SENIOR CATEGORY

Adebayo Michael – Jos! A city of beautiful Plateau
Akin Tella – I need a Voice
Akindele Opeyemi – Unmatched Bloods
Akpah Bartholomew Chizoba – Forty Two Gunshots
David Ishaya Osu – Seasons at Peasant’s Palm
Emmanuel Oluseyi Sams – Another Country 11-11-11
Farinde Opeyemi Adedamola  – The Dead Angel
Femi Eromosele – Song of a Renegade
Femi Olomojobi – Nostalgia of Tomorrow
Obafemi Olulaja Abayomi – The Day is Such
Ojebisi Kolawole Joseph – Ageing
Ojo Adeshina Victor – Midnight Song
Olawoyin Saheed Olawale – Just Wondering
Olusegun Owoseni – Does it Matter
Onele, Joseph Seun – I never say Die
Onele, Peter Cole – Golden Year
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan – Letter to my Mother
Richard Alli – Flower in the sun
Saleh L. Abubakar – My Beauty Said No
Salman Mohammed Jidah – Pages of Truth
Shola Balogun – Tell Them
Umukoro Karo – Fata Morgana
Watson Ifeoluwa – They Have Gone

JUNIOR CATEGORY

Akinbola Eniola – A Great Nation.
Bolaji – Yusuff Galib – Mystery
Ebiere Anthony – Miracle
Kayode Odedare – Time changes all
Kuhe Isaiah – What a World
Olaosebikan  Babatunde – The birth of the morning
Omofaye Victor I. – When will it be over
Oyegunle Kofoworola – My Mother
Wieba Ebimetimi – A dirge for my country

Winners will be announced on the 25th of November, 2011 by 5PM @ Arts
Theater, University of Ibadan.

Q

Tales At Night by Rasaq Malik

Not a moonlight tale

With its gathering pleasure

Giving birth for toes to dance

When moon glistens

Mine is a riddle,

Searching for tongues to break

The shell of its hidden,

Aged riddle

In womb of time

Mine is a call,

Seeking tune to drum,

To find the riddle that trapped me in muse.

We are the victims of wars

Land where peace is an alien and

Blood is our bath

Where evil dance trapped our legs

We are the travelers in the sea where

Only drum of dirge dances and

Lyrics of death flows in our mouth

Aged dreams

Set ablaze before rise of dawn,

Only at night we can sing,

When candles will glow in remembrance…

We are the singing voices

Clamoring for justice for

The bloodshed in trance

After naked festive of lies

Tales at night only

When elders dine with the moon

Leaving behind only

Our cry and broken melodies

Tales of seasons

That breaks calabash of joy

Pouring teasing blood

On our flowing rivers

I can only tell tales,

Tales of estranged kinsmen

Searching for the unseen cord

To tie their hearts

Rasaq Malik is an emerging Nigerian poet.

Books Are Like Children

‘Every book is a leap of faith,’ Lauren Wein says.
‘It is like having a child – trusting that the world is worthy of receiving what is most precious to you. Success, to me, is when the world returns your faith. Failure is when the world acts indifferent.’
Lauren Wein, a graduate of Cornell University was named a Senior Editor this last October at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, following fifteen years at Grave/Atlantic.
She has edited and championed several bestsellers as; How I Became A Famous Author by Steve Hely, Winkie by Clifford Chase, and Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos.
Books, I agree are like children an editor like a mother trusts the world will receive with open arms. Notwithstanding the pains of labour that comes with the thorough editing and proofreading, marketing and public relations, it may still fail woefully.
Lauren claims in the article  published by Publishing Perspectives, that some good books fail because it might have been overlooked or might not have found the audience.
It is now our responsiblity as a literary community to project those books to there audiences.
At Book Republic, we are dedicated towards projecting old and new, upcoming  failed books to the general public.
You might have read a book that you strongly think should be celebrated. Kindly mail the title and Author to Bookrepublic2012@gmail.com Have a blessed day ahead.

Introducing Book Republic

Book Republic is a Nigerian literary blog established by Emotion Press. It is basically dedicated towards promoting the reading culture in Nigeria.
In our creative way, as usual, we plan to write on both old and new books and other things that matter in the Nigerian literary scene.
Every forth night, from January 2012, we will be hosting a Guest writer. The Guest writer series will feature essays and interviews by the writer.
The Book Republic blog is www.progresspublishing.wordpress.com
As Emotion Press’ two releases – The Man In The Moon and The Grasshopper Race – will be out In December, the first ten followers of the blog will be given the electronic copy of those books free of charge! They will be the first ten people to read the books. You can follow the blog by visiting www.progresspublishing.wordpress.com and enter your name and e-mail on the given space.

The Nigerian Publishing Process

Writing can be a lucrative career if it is well refined and applied.
One of the best ways of applying one’s writing skills is to write a book and get it published.Royalties are paid to authors whose works have been published.This payment is made by the publishing company.
In Nigeria, most publishing companies prefer to publish educational books, mostly given impetus by the high demand for those sub genre of literature. Others, very few and in high demand, publish Fiction.
Some publishing companies that publish Fiction;
– Farafina books, Lagos – http://www.kachifo.com
– Cassava Republic Press, Abuja – http://www.cassavarepublic.biz
– Kraft Books, Ibadan.
– Emotion Press, Ibadan – Omojojolobooks.wordpress.com

Some publishing companies that publishes Education books;

-University Press Plc, Ibadan
-Evans Publishers, Ibadan
-HEBN Plc, Ibadan
-Macmillan Plc, Lagos

The publishing process can be quite tasking, depending on the company. In Nigeria, most authors deal directly with the publishing house without employing the services of a literary agent or legal consultant.
The typical Nigerian Publishing Process involves;

– Manuscript Submission
– Manuscript Evaluation
– Editing
– General Design and Layout
– ISBN Application
– Printing and Binding
-Book Presentation.

The publishing process is not as simple as it is scribbled here. It can be far more tasking, depending on the publishing house and the mode of publishing.
Publishing can be simply divided into;
-Traditional Publishing
-Self- Publishing/ Author financed.

The Fear Of The Book Pirate

I was at Ondo recently for my annual vacation. As a bookaholic,
one of those places I visited was a bookshop not far from the Oba
Osemawe’s palace.
The shop attendant was less receptive to my gentlemanly greeting. He
peered at me and my shopping bag, as if I will steal some of his
pencils or one, two , three of his educational books.
‘ Do you have fiction?’
‘ Wetin?’
‘Fiction?’
‘Mister man, I no understand wetin you dey say.’
‘Oh, I mean do you have novels or plays in your stock?’
‘ Stock? Is that not a novel, because I no understand
stock_ fiction?’
He pointed his finger to an angle in his medium sized shop. And there
I saw a copy of Ngugi’s Weep Not, Child. It was pirated.
‘How much?’
I looked at the first page of the book, and it was inscribed: N200
‘ Na N300.’
I switched to pidgin, for the first time since the start of this conversation.
‘No be N200 you write for the book?’
‘Bring money.’
I handed him a 200 Naira note and demanded for a receipt. He was
totally transformed, it was in his shaking voice I firstly discovered
this.
‘No receipt!’ Silence invaded the bookshop. And then I
laughed from the depth of my stomach.He joined me in this harvest of
laughter.
‘ You dey fear?’ I asked, just back from laughter land.

Our writers write day, noon and night, hopeful that their words will
make a way for them. They will survive the hassles of getting the
right publisher that would be faithful to the creative art of
packaging words.
Quite disheartening will it be for them,when discovery will show it
that some uneducated rascals are the ones reaping the fruits of their
labour.
The pirates are people like us. They fart, urinate and even
laugh. Only some divides make them pirates.
Most of them are uneducated and do not know the great influence
writers have on their worlds.
Some of them are educated but blinded and therefore turned ignoramus
by their greed and desperate thirst for a better living.For the
easy-way-out!
The pirates drain our resources. They call us fools. We the
educated. We the lovers of literature. We the future.
The pirates  turn our books to automated teller machine. They
transmogrify our packaged words to bank vaults, which they can
manipulate for their monetary gains. And they are the Anini, Osama Bin
Laden or Boko Haram of the publishing industry.
They know the act of pirating is illegal. And they are aware of
the fact that they are literally killing the book industry.
Afraid of the sanctions from authorities like Nigerian Copyright
Commission? YES. That is why the bookshop attendant could not issue a
receipt.
We need to ginger the pirate’s fear for duplicating our books.
Publishers, writers, critics, readers and buyers of books, must
resolve to fight piracy.
The pirates dread us. They are mere thieves that can be curbed from
stealing. They need us to help them catalyze that fear for pirating to
inestimable heights. Let us all refuse to buy pirated books and report
suspected pirates to the nearest Nigerian Copyright Commission office.
The commission should respond quickly to petitions; they should bring
there offices closer to lovers and buyers of books.
Publishers should DRAG books closer to readers. Publishing
outfits should encourage reading as an habit, and sponsor events
dedicated towards this cause.
One of those events, The Emotion Book Party is a bi- annual literary
event dedicated towards celebrating books and it is hosted by Emotion
Press.
Government and corporate organizations should make funds available
to upcoming publishing outfits.Nigeria needs more than five hundred
publishing outfits to cater for our yearly upsurge in writing talents.
Grants should also be provided for writers that wants to write full time.
An enlightenment campaign against piracy, involving workshops on
the dangers of piracy targeted at sellers, readers and buyers of
books, must be kick started by individuals and organizations.

Folarin Olaniyi is the Managing Editor at Emotion Press and The
Coordinator of The Emotion Book club, Ibadan. Visit our blog
www.omojojolobooks.wordpress.com.