Dexter Loko Wins 2026 Chinua Achebe Prize for The Bako of Zereshé

Nigerian-Irish writer Dexter Loko has won the 2026 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature for his fantasy novel The Bako of Zereshé. The result was announced on Saturday, October 31, during the Association of Nigerian Authors' (ANA) 45th Annual International Convention in Abuja, Nigeria. Loko received a ₦1 million prize, sponsored by United Nigeria Airlines, after his book emerged from a three-title shortlist. The award marks a notable breakthrough for a relatively new author whose writing draws on Nigerian life, storytelling traditions and speculative imagination.

The winning novel introduces readers to a version of Nigeria that cannot be found on any ordinary map: Zereshé, a secret thirty-seventh state where magic is part of everyday existence. Its central character, a young British journalist named Jeremy Fletcher, travels to north-eastern Nigeria for a reporting assignment before an unexpected event carries him into this hidden world. There, the search for a story becomes a confrontation with unfamiliar customs, divided loyalties and a dangerous struggle over power. For a literary award named after one of Africa's most influential novelists, Loko's win provides an occasion to look closely at how contemporary Nigerian fiction is expanding its imaginative territory.

The November 2 report in Leadership identifies Loko as the winner and confirms that ANA vice-president and award-winning author Obari Gomba presented the prize. ANA's official prize announcement independently establishes its eligibility rules, sponsorship and award amount. Earlier coverage of the book and the shortlist documents the publication and selection process. Together, these sources place the result within an established annual competition rather than a standalone promotional honour.

📖 A fantasy novel with a hidden Nigerian state at its centre

Published in July 2026 by Lagos-based GrandTouch Press, The Bako of Zereshé is a substantial standalone fantasy novel of approximately 170,000 words. The story begins in a recognizably contemporary world, with Jeremy Fletcher, a British journalist, travelling to Nigeria to report on the insurgency in the country's north-east. His assignment does not unfold as planned. After a dramatic interruption, Jeremy finds himself in Zereshé, an imagined state whose existence is concealed from the outside world and whose inhabitants live with powers unfamiliar to him.

Zereshé is not simply a decorative magical backdrop. Reviews and author interviews describe a society with its own political tensions, history, forms of belonging and divisions over the use of power. Jeremy enters as an outsider, initially unable to understand the rules that govern the people around him. The tension between his desire to return to a familiar life and the responsibilities emerging in Zereshé gives the adventure its human stakes. The book's premise also allows a familiar fantasy device—the hidden world—to be explored through specifically Nigerian settings and cultural reference points.

A Premium Times review identifies Asha, the prime minister's daughter, her friend Shani and Chudi, a marginalized young man without magical abilities, among the figures Jeremy encounters. Their relationships broaden the story beyond the perspective of its visiting protagonist. The review also describes political intrigue, supernatural danger and questions of who is allowed to belong within the hidden state. These are descriptions of the novel's reported content, not a claim that the book's fictional society represents real Nigerian political institutions.

The title's emphasis on the bako—an outsider or stranger within the novel's world—points toward one of the book's recurring concerns. In an August interview with The Guardian Nigeria, Loko discussed the universality of feeling foreign or unfamiliar in a new place. That experience can be geographical, but it can also come from entering a community whose expectations and relationships are difficult to read. It is a useful thematic bridge between a fantastic setting and recognizable experiences of migration, uncertainty and acceptance.

✍️ Who is Dexter Loko?

Dexter Loko was born in Nigeria and is based in Ireland, where he has continued to develop a literary career shaped by his experiences in both places. His first published book, The Day the Sun Vanished, was an independently released collection of fifteen short stories that appeared in November 2023. The Bako of Zereshé followed in 2026 as his second published book and a major step in scale. Describing the distinction matters: Loko's earlier work was a story collection, so this award-winning fantasy should not be casually described as the second instalment of an existing novel series.

In interviews around the novel's launch, Loko has credited his Nigerian upbringing, family reading environment and exposure to local stories with shaping the material from which he writes. He has also spoken about the influence of African writers already working in fantasy and science fiction, as well as his interest in telling ambitious stories that remain rooted in a recognizable cultural setting. His move to Ireland brings another dimension to that work, especially in a book interested in the emotional distance between home and elsewhere. It would be too simple to treat the novel as autobiography, but the connection between Loko's cross-border life and his interest in outsiders is evident in the way he discusses his fiction.

The novel received a Nigerian launch in Abuja in July before a Dublin event at The Winding Stair bookstore in August. Readers at the Irish launch attended a reading and conversation with the author, followed by a signing, according to The Guardian Nigeria. That international presentation preceded the ANA shortlist and the eventual award. For an author still in the early stages of a publishing career, the sequence provides a clear picture of the book's path from release to recognition.

📚 The other shortlisted books and the road to the prize

Loko did not win by default. The 2026 Chinua Achebe Prize shortlist contained three books, with Henry Akubuiro's No Place Like Home and Oyedikachi Uzozie Nmezi's Chikoba competing alongside The Bako of Zereshé. ANA released the names ahead of its convention, allowing the finalists to be recognized in their own right. The final award was announced during the association's annual gathering, which ran from October 29 to November 1 in Abuja.

The prize's published rules required applicants to be Nigerian authors, whether living at home or abroad, and to submit a novel published in 2025 or 2026. Entries were judged for qualities including originality, language, narrative craft, characterization, creativity and thematic depth. ANA also set conflict-of-interest rules for judges and excluded entries from certain officials and people connected with the prize sponsor. In practical terms, this means the award was intended to assess finished, published books rather than unpublished manuscripts or proposals.

The October shortlist and the October 31 winner announcement represent two separate stages of the same competition. Early coverage identified Loko as one of three contenders; the later result confirmed the final selection. The announcement at the association's convention turned that recognition into a national literary honour with a financial award. There is no public basis in the sources cited here to claim how individual judges voted or that they selected the book for one particular stylistic feature, so those details should not be invented.

🏅 What is the Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature?

The prize is administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors and named in honour of Chinua Achebe, the novelist whose work helped transform how African lives and histories were presented to readers around the world. Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart remains an essential reference point in discussions of African literature, colonialism and the right to tell one's own story. The prize seeks to recognize achievement in Nigerian fiction, but it is not a judgment that every winning author writes in Achebe's style. Its title connects contemporary writing with a major literary legacy while allowing very different forms of fiction to compete.

For 2026, the winner's award was fixed at ₦1 million, together with a plaque or certificate. ANA's official announcement stated that United Nigeria Airlines had committed ₦10 million towards prize funds and administration across the 2026–2030 period. That longer-term sponsorship commitment should not be confused with the amount awarded to Loko individually. The ceremony formed part of the association's 45th international annual convention, a gathering intended to support the wider community of Nigerian writers and readers.

The award is not restricted to authors living inside Nigeria. Its eligibility rules explicitly invite Nigerian writers abroad, a distinction that makes Loko's win particularly relevant to the country's literary diaspora. Writers can remain connected to Nigerian publishing and literary recognition while building careers and readerships elsewhere. In this case, an author based in Ireland was recognized for a book published by a Lagos press and launched in both Nigeria and Dublin.

🌍 What this win means for Nigerian fantasy fiction

Fantasy offers a way to invent different social arrangements while retaining the recognizable pressures of the real world. In Loko's novel, magic coexists with an apparently modern state, and a foreign reporter is forced to confront the limits of his understanding. The result is not only an adventure premise but also a framework for thinking about belonging, authority, memory and collective identity. The book's selection is noteworthy because its imagined world is grounded in Nigerian reference points rather than relying entirely on settings inherited from European fantasy traditions.

Nigerian and African speculative fiction are not new, nor did this award create the genre. Writers across the continent and its diaspora have long used fantasy, science fiction and folklore to explore history and contemporary life. Loko's success is better understood as another visible example of that range, especially within a prize intended to recognize fiction broadly. The award can encourage readers who follow mainstream literary prizes to consider an epic fantasy novel they might otherwise overlook.

The recognition could also bring new attention to GrandTouch Press and to the possibilities available to writers moving between independent publishing and national literary institutions. No sales figures or new translation deals have been confirmed as a consequence of the win, so its commercial impact remains to be seen. What is established is the prize itself: a published work from a Nigerian-Irish author won a national fiction honour after competing against two shortlisted titles. That is a substantial achievement without needing to exaggerate its immediate market effects.

📅 Publication and award timeline

🔎 Why readers should pay attention to The Bako of Zereshé

For readers looking beyond the most heavily promoted international fantasy franchises, The Bako of Zereshé offers a distinctive point of entry into a Nigerian setting reimagined through the conventions of epic fantasy. Its premise combines a journalist's curiosity with an unfamiliar magical society and the larger stakes of political struggle. The novel's length suggests a sustained commitment to building that world, while existing reviews identify relationships and social conflict as important parts of its appeal. Those features may interest readers who enjoy adventurous fiction without wanting their imaginary worlds detached from history or identity.

For readers of literary news, the more immediate significance is a confirmed award result that connects an emerging author, an independent publisher and one of Nigeria's established literary organizations. The 2026 Chinua Achebe Prize does not settle debates about genre or literary value; it adds another book to the conversation. Loko's win invites closer attention to the novel itself, to the other shortlisted titles and to the variety of stories being published by Nigerian writers at home and abroad. That is a meaningful outcome for a prize intended to increase the visibility of fiction.

🔗 Sources & References