ANA Convention to discover new talents
Posted By: Edozie
Udeze On: October 16, 2016 In: Arts & Life
In this interview with Edozie Udeze,
Denja Abdullahi, the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)
talks about the forth coming National Convention and what it has in stock
for writers and more.
After
35years,what basic things can you point to as the main achievements of the Association
of Nigerian Authors?
The Association has been able
to forge a sense of unity among Nigerian writers as they speak with one voice
on all issues. A lot of writers have cut their teeth under the tutelage of ANA
and the Association has given birth to several other literary groups and
concerns.ANA has developed core compe-tence in the devising of means to promote
the reading culture in the society and in extending its reach to our schools
through various literary outreach programmes. More importantly, ANA has
been in the forefront of building an egalitarian society in Nigeria. These are
just a few of ANA’s achievements.
People
have been expectingANA to be more proactive since your tenure began. What do
you have to say?
My tenure so far has been most
active and methodical. I started by re-examining the operations of the
Association with a view to positioning it for optimum performance. This we
crystallised through a strategic planning workshop which led to the development
of a blueprint that will be unveiled at the coming convention. We are doing an
audio-visual documentary on the Association which will be premiered at the
coming convention.We also recently held in Owerri the first national conference
on teen authorship which was very successful. We are building a digital
database which will be unveiled too at the convention.All these were done
alongside other routine activities of the Association that have been given new
impetus such as the ANA/ Yusuf Ali nationwide literary awareness campaign.
Some
categories in the ANAprizes this year are vacant.What is responsible for this?
Those categories either had
very few entries waning down the compete effectively edge or entries were of
poor quality. The judges have the right not to award any prize and we do not
influence nor interfere with their decisions.
From the
entries this year, do you think the standard of literature in Nigeria is any
better?
The standard must be better
as we cannot expect a downturn with all the brilliant efforts being put forth by
Nigerian writers.Going by ANA entries, when we get the judges’ report as
they were the one who had read the books and did comparisons, we will get to
know where our contemporary literature is tilting.
What do we
expect from ANA convention in Abuja come October 27th?
You should expect to see a
better organised convention with surfeit of engaging literary activities.
We will be working with a system that must follow an ordered pattern. We will
be expecting more responsibility from attendees to enable us give them a
memorable and commemorative convention.
http://thenationonlineng.net/ana-convention-discover-new-talents/
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