Bouquet of harvests from the ANA/AE-FUNAI Partnership

BOUQUET OF HARVESTS FROM THE ANA/AE-FUNAI PARTNERSHIP

Reports reaching the Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA) stated that the management of Alex Ekwueme Federal University ,Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI) in Ebonyi State has set up a high-level Central Working Committee to oversee the activities under the ANA /AE-FUNAI partnership that has delivered The Expanding Frontiers of Nigerian Literature Conference and Workshop for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) and hosted by the institution. The University’s Central Working Committee is already poised to work with ANA counterpart technical committee towards the delivery of next year’s conference/Workshop. The University’s management, under the leadership of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Chinedum  Nwajiuba, also approved  the production  of three creative writing  anthologies in the three genres of literature(Prose, Poetry and Drama) arising out of the creative writing workshops held so far by the partnership. In furtherance of harnessing the proceedings from the papers presented at the yearly conference being hosted in partnership with ANA, the University also approved the establishment of the publication of a  peer-reviewed journal to be tagged The Expanding Frontiers of Nigerian Literature Journal .ANA Has been invited to nominate qualified and well-experienced  persons  to be part of the team that will oversee the production of the anthologies and journal. Since the last conference which held in July 2019, authorities of AE-FUNAI and ANA have been exchanging drafts of an MOU designed to institutionalize the partnership and ensure its continuity well into the future beyond the present minders of both institutions. The MOU has gone through rigorous assessment by the legal units of both institutions and a signing ceremony would soon be held.

 It should be recalled that the ANA/AE-FUNAI Expanding Frontiers of Nigerian Literature Conference/Workshop is one of the legacy projects of the present Mallam Denja Abdullahi-led  National Executive Council of ANA  and a fulfilment of a campaign promise made before inception to unbundle the yearly ANA international Convention that once featured a time-challenged seminar series/workshop. The 2019 conference/Workshop was attended by a foremost pioneer critic of African Literature , Editor, African Literature Today and one of ANA Trustees, Prof. Ernest Emenyonu among a host of other top scholars, writers and critics. Hundreds of students of the institution and beyond were also taken through  intensive workshops in the three genres of literature by foremost writers/experts in the fields.