Maynooth University Library Launches Ken Saro-Wiwa Poetry Competition 2020

Sister Majella McCarron (OLA) speaking at the 2019 MU Ken Saro-Wiwa Seminar

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a social and environmental activist from the Niger Delta.   His death-row correspondence to Sister Majella McCarron (OLA) was donated to Maynooth University Library in 2011.  The letters, poems by Saro-Wiwa and contextual essays are available in the open access book Silence Would be Treason:Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa edited by Íde Corley, Helen Fallon & Laurence Cox, and published by Daraja Press. 

 To mark the 25^th anniversary of the execution of  Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues (the Ogoni 9) Maynooth University Library is running a poetry competition, which will be judged by renowned poet Jessica Traynor, who edited, with Stephen Rea "Correspondences: An Anthology to Call for an end to Direct Provision."

Poems can be on any of the themes embodied by Ken Saro-Wiwa and the issues he and his colleagues campaigned for. These include: environmental destruction, social justice, land rights, poverty and gender, power and control.
The competition has two categories: Adult: Over 18 years of age. Schools: Transition year and above.

Prizes are National Book Tokens worth €100 (first prize) and €50 (second prize) in each category.

Winners and shortlisted poems will be published in a winner’s anthology to be launched in Maynooth University Library on 12^th November 2020. Closing date for entries is 29^th May 2020

Further details and entry forms

You can learn more about Ken Saro-Wiwa and view images and other material, from the Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive at MaynoothUniversity, from the Ken Saro-Wiwa Libguide. 

Helen Fallon