You can now submit to the 2020 Punocracy Prize for Satire. Sponsored by the Goethe-Institut and Light Multifarious Books, this prize is organised by Punocracy, a community of young writers of satire in Nigeria that was launched in March 2018. The platform was created to promote free speech, critical thinking, and political consciousness. They aim to make satire a widely accepted and understood tool of socio-political commentary. They are on “a mission to improve satirical literacy and create a safe space for writers and lovers of satire.”

In light of this, they seek entries for the second edition of the Prize for Satire. All submissions that feature on the longlist will be published on the Punocracy’s website. A shortlist of no more than 20 entries will be announced in October, while the overall winners will be announced and awarded during the World Satire Day celebration the following month.

The Judges

The judges are two highly proficient and distinguished personalities: Chuma Nwokolo, lawyer, publisher, and author of Diaries of a Dead African, The Extinction of Menai, and other books; and Elnathan John, lawyer, satirist, and author of Be(com)ing Nigerian: A Guide, Born on a Tuesday, and other books.

Judges are on the look-out for great works of satire, which includes articles that creatively deploy wit, irony, sarcasm, and/or ridicule in criticising faults. 

Eligibility

Applicants should be Nigerians aged between 15 and 30 years as of July 19, 2020.

Entries

Only one entry is allowed per person. Entries may take the shape of prose, drama, news, poetry, a speech, a bill, a letter, a manual, a prophecy, an essay, an advert, or even quasi-scriptural passages. There are also no restrictions on topics. For the second edition, entries are also accepted in the form of satirical visual art/political cartooning, which will be judged separately. 

Also, the entry must:

— Be written in English and saved in a .doc format (for articles) and .pdf (for cartoons).

— Be anything between 300 and 1500 words (for articles).

— Not be plagiarised in part or in whole.

— Not be jointly authored or created.

— Not have been previously published.

— Most importantly, be satirical.

Prizes

First place (Literature): N70,000, books, and certificate.

First place (Visual art): N50,000, books, and certificate.

Second place (Literature): N50,000, books, and certificate.

Third place (Literature): N30,000, books, and certificate.

Deadline

11:59 pm (GMT+1), Sunday, July 19, 2020

Application

Please visit this page to apply for the competition.

About Punocracy

We are Nigeria’s first strictly satirical blog with multiple columnists, and occupying this position means a lot to us. The word may sound effortlessly like pornography, but don’t be fooled. We titillate your senses in an entirely different way, by experimenting with the intersection between words, humour, and socio-politics.

We aim to be home to different species of Nigerian satirists, where societal issues can be ingested, digested, regurgitated and addressed using the surgical tools of pun and wit. We also would like to be your one-stop-shop for all things satire, and that is why you would find us curating lip-smacking satirical dishes from other websites.

At Punocracy, we are fond of saying what we do not mean and meaning what we do not exactly say. So even though this means we get misinterpreted a lot, it also means we are not writing for just anyone.

Hopefully, the world’s satirical literacy (that is, the ability to read and write satire) will somehow catch up.