The Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation has announced the winners for the November 2023-January 2024 edition of the Splendors of Dawn Poetry and Short-Short Story Competition.
The competition was announced on the official social media handles of the foundation called for entries in November 2023 and had over 15 entries ranging from poetry to short-short stories.
The competition theme: Next Gen focuses on engaging young Nigerians in the fight against corruption. The theme calls for poems about innovative ideas or community initiatives led by youth that promote anti-corruption values, ethics, and awareness. It encourages ideas that empower young people to become agents of change in promoting accountability and transparency within their communities.
The Judge of the quarter, Soonest Nathaniel scrutinized the entries and came out with three entries that emerged winners for the competition. Nathaniel had this to say about the entries “I must begin by commending those who put this initiative together, it’s a poetry project needed in these times. Having said that, I cannot fail to express my disappointment at the level of entries I read, and I am saddened mainly because it’s a failure by people like me to impact knowledge into the younger ones, an anomaly which we surely will fix in no time.”
Below are the winning entries for the Splendors of Dawn Poetry and Short-Short Story Competition, November 2023- January 2024 edition:
1. FIRST POSITION: GEN-Z; POEM OF HOPE AND NEW BEGINNINGS by Daniel Aôndona
2. SECOND POSITION: GEN-Z- POEM ABOUT THE PHYSICS OF BREATH AND HOPE by Abubakar Auwal
3. THIRD POSITION: PARADIGM SHIFT by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide
This competition is sponsored by the Center for Information Technology And Development (CITAD) with support from the MacArthur Foundation.