Award-winning author, Dr Dave Okorafor, has said his debut novel, The Boy Who Built a Titanic Raft, winning the 2025 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)/Ngozi Chuma-Udeh Prize for Children’s Fiction, came as a surprise but would spur him to write more.
Speaking with journalists, Okorafor described the recognition as both “humbling and encouraging,” noting that it affirms his belief that stories have the power to “find a home in the hearts of readers.”
“I did not write the novel to chase awards,” he said.
“Writing, for me, is a journey shared with the reader. Awards are beautiful, but they are byproducts, not the motive.”
Okorafor revealed that he completed the manuscript in just four months—between February and June 2025—after a personal setback that saw Facebook abruptly disable his account.
“Out of that emotional disruption, I turned inward, and the story that had been simmering in my mind finally poured out,” he recounted.
The novel, he explained, tells the story of a courageous young boy who builds a raft to cross a mystical stream, only to be swept away and later rescued with the help of social media.
“It’s a story of courage, innovation and resilience,” he said.
“Though written as a crossover novel, both children and adults can enjoy it.”
A medical doctor and consultant radiologist, Okorafor also holds a first-class degree in English.
“Medicine and literature are simply two dimensions of who I am—one engages the logical mind, the other allows the imagination to breathe,” he added.
He lamented the dwindling reading culture in Nigeria, attributing it to economic hardship.
“People are too burdened to prioritise reading,” he said. “We must reawaken our cultural value for knowledge.”
Okorafor urged writers to “write because they must,” and advised the government to invest in structured literary development through grants, reading programmes and library revitalisation.
The 2025 ANA Awards, held at the Chinua Achebe International Conference Centre, Abuja, also recognised writers across other categories.
In the ANA/KMVL Poetry Prize, Stoning the Wind by Gbemisola Adeoti and Girls and the Silhouette of Form by Star Zahra were declared joint winners.
Olumide Olutola clinched the ANA/King Dakolo Fiction Prize for Habitat of Ordinary People, while David Hundeyin’s Breaking Point won the ANA/Sir Chukwuemeka Sam Nwelue Non-Fiction Prize.
ANA President, Dr Usman Oladipo Akanbi, hailed the winners as “torchbearers of creativity and conscience,” reaffirming the association’s commitment to promoting Nigerian literature and its creators.
