Umezurike got the award for his critical essays – “Self-Publishing in the era of military rule in Nigeria, 1985 – 1999,” “Postcolonial Ogres in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow,” and “Land of cemetery: funereal images in the poetry of Musa Idris Okpanachi.”
This was announced by a member of The Nigeria Prize for Literature Advisory Board, Prof. Olu Obafemi.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature has since 2004 rewarded eminent writers in all the literary categories that the Prize rotates yearly; Poetry, Prose, drama and Children’s literature.
The prize runs concurrently with the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism which is also sponsored by NLNG for which four entries were received in 2020.
The literary criticism prize carries a monetary value of N1 million.