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.
