UI alumnus Isong shortlisted for UK’s biggest literary prize fund

Anietie Isong, a Nigerian writer, is among those in the running to benefit from the UK’s biggest literary fund of more than £98,000.

The Society of Authors announced 22 shortlisted names for the Betty Trask, McKitterick, Tom Gallon and Somerset Maugham awards.

The University of Ibadan alumnus is shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize for his debut novel ‘Radio Sunrise’.

“A small volume, staying long in the imagination, with the huge backdrop of a young, utterly likeable Nigerian journalist trying to live a life and get ahead,” said Frances Fyfield, a McKitterick judge.

“Lovely, simple first-person narrative of youthful manhood, getting it wrong, getting it right, learning on the hoof.

“Makes the reader long to meet him, while engendering both hope and despair for the society he inhabits, all enlivened by humour.”

Isong has worked as a journalist, speechwriter, and public relations manager in the UK and in Nigeria.

His accolades include a Commonwealth Short Story Award and the Remember Oluwale Writing Prize.

Judged by authors for authors, the four prizes will be awarded at The Authors’ Awards on July 19 in London.

The program has awarded the works of prominent literary figures such as Zadie Smith, Seamus Heaney, Helen Dunmore, Hari Kunzru, Carol Ann Duffy and Mark Haddon.