We are delighted to announce the results of the Rising Star Writing Competition Season 6 to the general public. The theme for this season was Our New World. Interestingly, we received the highest number of entries since the commencement of the competition in 2016: a whopping 1841 entries. We greatly commend schools and individuals that have embarked on this journey with us. Let us also point out that 394 of the entries were disqualified for reasons ranging from being entirely not a creative work to outrightly diverting from the purpose. After a painstaking assessment process, 6 winners emerged in both the primary and secondary categories. Details of the winners have been published on our website and social media pages. It is our tradition to open entries for short stories and poetry categories but we opened only for the short story category this year as we have observed that more children pander towards poetry.

Considering the news of the Covid-19 third wave, the Award Presentation Ceremony will hold separately at the school of each winner: the winners and schools will be duly informed. This measure is inevitable for us to control crowd, abide by Covid-19 protocol, and yet celebrate our winners. Although the entries were quite fantastic, the judges unanimously observed that most of the entries were below the ideal standard of a winning RSWC entry. It is our earnest expectation to receive mind-blowing entries, see African writers bloom; and we would like to use this avenue to encourage literacy teachers to put in more effort in teaching children and building them strong in writing and sustaining rich narratives.

We appreciate everyone and every school that participated this year. We hope, in no distant time, to compile and publish all the winning entries as well as anthology of all the poems by the Writers Corner. The organisers of this competition have the unrestricted rights to publish competition entries in any format at any time and/or be used as promotional material.

We are most grateful to all our sponsors for believing and sharing this vision with us over the years, and working with us to hunt for these young writers in a bid to inspire them and populate the Nigerian community with great writers.

Here are the details of the winners:

PRIMARY CATEGORY

1st Place Winner

Aaliyah Tijani

University of Lagos Staff School

2nd Place Winner

Ikejide Chinaza Anthonia

Ivy Leagues Montessori, Lagos

3rd Place Winner

Ekene Happiness Ebube

Pafic Nursery & Primary School, Lagos

SECONDARY SCHOOL CATEGORY

1st Place Winner

Gabriel Okwundu

Princeton College, Surulere, Lagos

2nd Place Winner

Oluwanifise Adeleye

Livingspring High School, Ajah, Lagos

3rd Place Winner

Ogundare Miracle Flora Schools, Lagos

A hearty congratulations to all the contestants that participated in this competition. You are all winners, and we are proud of you! We should all bear in mind that the goal of this competition, a part of children’s formal education, is to equip them with writing skills, writing tools, efficacy beliefs, and intrinsic interest to empower themselves in a variety of pursuits in writing throughout your lifetime.

We will continue to work with Class Teachers and Literacy Teachers to discover and hone the writing skills of our young ones. Please reach out to us on therisingstarwritingawards@gmail.com or thewriterscorner2015@gmail.com for in-person and virtual creative writing training.

Sincerely

Uche Udoji

RSWCA Project Coordinator

We are happy to announce the result of the 5th Edition of The Rising Star Writing Competition themed ‘FREEDOM’. It has been concluded with ten (10) winners emerging in the two categories. The results have also been widely published on our website, www.thewriterscorner.com.ng, conventional and social media organs.

It is the intention of the organizers that the Winning Entries are compiled and published by The Writers Corner, in the Writers Corner Blog and an anthology publications of Poems and Short Stories with credits given to the writers. The organizers will have the unrestricted rights to publish competition entries in any format at any time and/or be used as relevant promotional material.
We appreciate everyone and every school that participated at this period of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Award Presentation Ceremony will hold on different dates and in the individual schools of the students with the winning entries. This is to abide by the social distancing measures and crowd control. Details on how schools can participate in the award event will be shared soon. We had outstanding entries especially in the Primary School Categories but the entries for this year did not produce the standard of short stories to win a RSWC Award in the 1st and 2nd positions in the Secondary School Category. We would like to use this opportunity to encourage teachers to put in more effort in teaching children how to develop short stories.

We remain most grateful to all our sponsors, especially Greenlife Pharmaceutical LTD, for sharing this vision with us over the years and working with us to hunt for these young writers and inspire them to become great writers.

Details of the results show that :

WINNING POSITIONS

PRIMARY CATEGORY

Short Story
1st Position Short Story – Onyeke-Atobore, Zoe
10 Years Old
Year 5
St.Saviours School,Ikoyi, Lagos –

2nd Position Short Story – Chikamara Okpala
9 Years Old
Year 4
Divine Offspring International School, Lagos

3rd Position Short Story – Olaere Demilade
Year 6
The Livingsprings Schools,Awoyaya Lagos

SECONDARY CATEGORY
Short Story

1st Position – Nil

2nd Position – Nil

3rd Position – Ugo-Ogoke, Chukwukanyima
SS3
Marywood Girls College, Ebute Metta Lagos

POETRY
PRIMARY CATEGORY

1st Position Poetry – Morenikejimi Reni Anjorin
10 Years Old
Year 5
St. Saviour’s School Ikoyi Lagos

2nd Position – Kenechukwu Anthony Azuike
10 Years Old
Year 6
Sunnyfields Primary School,Ikeja

3rd Position – Arifeoluwa Benson
11 Years Old
Year 6
St. Saviour’s School, Ikoyi

SECONDARY CATEGORY

1st Position – Modebelu Ikeoluwa
Year 9
Holy Child Girls College, Lagos

2nd Position – Ifeanyi-Obi, Angel
Year 11
Bloombreed Schools, Port Harcourt

3rd Position – Idara, Enang
JSS 2
Redeemer’s International Secondary School, Lagos

We congratulate these children and every other child that participated in this Creative Writing Competition in the face of school closures due to the global pandemic. Well done children for participating you are all winners.
We will continue to work with Class Teachers and Literacy Teachers to discover and hone the writing skills of our children. Please reach out to us on therisingstarwritingawards@gmail.com or thewriterscorner2015@gmail.com for your Creative Writing In-person and Virtual Training.

Sincerely,

Uche Udoji
RSWCA Project Coordinator