GAW literary awards launched
The Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) has launched its Writers Literary Awards 2017 contest at PAWA House in Accra. The awards scheme existed some time ago but has not been held for over 20 years and GAW is keen to revive it.
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Nana Kwasi Gyan- Appenteng, the association’s president and also chairman of the National Media Commission, expressed concern over the inability of the media to communicate literary programmes to the public.
He said there were more than 400 media houses in the country but little attention had been paid to programmes on Ghanaian literature and books.
“There are almost no literature sections in our media. Not a single one broadcasts plays or drama to carry our traditional culture. Only a few of them carry weekly book programmes,” he observed.
Categories
The awards programme, which will be held in August, will include categories for novel, short story, drama, poetry, children’s story and poetry, young writer, creative non-fiction, spoken word and scriptwriting.
All entries must be published works and submitted to GAW by the authors before March 31. Only one entry would be considered from an author per category.
Apart from a winner and two runners-up in each category, there will also be a number of other recognition awards, including posthumous ones, for writers of merit in the country.
Award
Nana Gyan-Apenteng lauded the earlier generation of GAW, and stressed the need to ensure that the creativity and writing talents of young people were promoted and used to the benefit of society.
“Awards are sources of pride and prestige to winners and even those whose entries are only shortlisted because it increases visibility and marketability for the writer and publisher of winning books,” he said.
The GAW president said the absence of a nationally recognised literary award scheme was one of the reasons why books and literary works had virtually disappeared from the national development agenda.
Libraries
The Secretary-General of the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), Professor Atukwei Okai, also urged the government to establish more libraries to make books available for reading.
He said reading and writing formed integral parts of the development of every country, adding that a country that focuses on reading, progresses rapidly because development could only be built on education.