Bath Spa University

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The perfect setting for a creative mind.

Once again - due to amazing popularity - we ran our competition to find the best creative writers in Nigeria and Ghana in 2008.

Bath Spa University (BSU), a British university that has led the teaching of creative writing since the 1980s, producing many published authors and one of the highest ranked teaching-led modern universities in the UK, once again ran a competition to find the best creative writers in Nigeria and Ghana. We ran this competition in 2007 in Nigeria in conjunction with Bridgeway Overseas Admission Centre (BOAC). The competition was judged by BSU and Nigerian-born Segun Afolabi, author of A Life Elsewhere, Goodbye Lucille and winner of the 2005 Caine prize for African writing.

We were looking for talented writers of prose fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, literary non-fiction or writing for young people, whose work shows, in our judgement, the potential for publication. We wanted to help you develop your talent by offering this fantastic opportunity of a lifetime.
The writer of the winning entry received the prize of £200 and was considered for a place on a graduate or undergraduate creative writing course at BSU. If the place was awarded, it would be supported by an annual scholarship of £2,000. See terms and conditions below. A runner up prize of £75 was also offered.

Terms and conditions (for full terms and conditions please see www.boac-uk.net)

• Entries should be prose fiction (novel excerpt or short story), poetry or short drama. 300 to 5,000 words. Any subject permissible.
• Judging criterion is literary merit as our judges perceive it. The decision of Bath Spa University is final.
• There will be one winner, who will be offered a scholarship of £2,000 per year towards the tuition fees at Bath Spa University, dependant upon a successful
  application to the course (BA (three-year) or MA (one-year) Creative Writing or MA (one-year) Writing for Young People) or MA (one-year) Scriptwriting and a
  confirmed visa offer. Applications to courses are subject to the normal conditions for application to all Bath Spa University courses. In addition and regardless
  of whether the winner applies for a place at BSU, the winner will be awarded a cash prize of £200 and a runner-up will be awarded a cash prize of £75.
• Full-time attendance is required for all courses. The scholarship is offered for each year of the course, subject to satisfactory academic progress each year.
• The deadline for receiving applications is 31st March 2008. The winners will be contacted by 30th April 2008 by email.
• All entries should be submitted in a word document online to office@boac-uk.net.
• More information can also be obtained via Tel +2341 8144733, Mobile +23418028560071 or www.boac-uk.net.
   

2007 Winners

We would like to thank all those who entered the competition last year.

2007 WINNER
The Whip by Ngozi Ifeyinwa Razak-Soyebi (Click to read the winning entry)

2007 RUNNER UP
The World is a Bubble by Adeboyin Thomas (Click to read the runner-up's entry)

Both entrants have received a place to study for an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and Ngozi will be starting in October 2008

For more information on applying to BSU please visit www.bathspa.ac.uk or email office@boac-uk.net.
 

Reactions from our winner and our runner-up

I was struck speechless when I saw that I had won first place. I am so excited, I can't begin to tell you how much. And coming so soon after I won last years Macmillan UK Writer's Prize for Africa makes it all the more amazing.
Thank you so much for organizing such a wonderful competition for Nigerian writers. For most of us writers in Nigeria, competitions like this is what makes the difference between obscurity and some form of recognition. Thank you so much.
Ngozi Ifeyinwa Razak-Soyebi

Thank you for choosing me as the Runner-up in the competition, I am extremely happy and excited. I feel validated to go ahead as a writer. My family and friends have always encouraged me to keep writing and publish some of my stories but until this competition results came out, I preferred to just hide my head in the sand. This has really shown me that if people out there (creative geniuses!) that I have never met think my story is good enough, then I have to be a more serious writer and live up to the general expectations of me. Thank you again.
Adeboyin Thomas
 

2008 Winners

We would like to thank all those who entered the competition this year.

2008 WINNER
The Outsider by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (Click to read the winning entry)

2008 RUNNER UP
Homeless by Ovo Adagha  (Click to read the runner-up's entry)


For more information on applying to BSU please visit www.bathspa.ac.uk or email office@boac-uk.net.
 

Reactions from our winner and our runner-up

I'm elated, really elated. I didn't quite believe it when Ngozi Razak-Soyebi, last year's winner, tore through my sleep in the wee hours of morning with an expected phone call: 'Congrats, Uche, you won, you won the BSU Competition!'
I didn't take the competition seriously, and I didn't believe the story had any remarkable merits, but now I am glad I listened to 'those voices'
which urged me to enter the competition. Thanks for giving aspiring writers a chance to believe in themselves.
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
 

Thank you for the notification which I received this morning. I am indeed elated.
It might interest you to know that Homeless has been scheduled for publication in a forthcoming anthology of short stories titled 'One World'
by Uk publishers, New Internationalist.
Please send my congratulations to  the winner, Uche Umezuruike. And also to your team.
Best regards,
Ovo Adagha