Nigerian Author Chika Unigwe Recalls Lesson From Top-Three Finish in National Writing Contest

Chika Unigwe, a Nigerian author, has shared a lesson she learned when she finished among the top three in a national writing competition. Unigwe, a professor of Writing at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, explained that an older pen pal who had stopped writing to her suddenly got in touch after her writing success was covered in newspapers. She told the story while commenting on Anne Carson, who received the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature. Unigwe wrote: 'All the posts about Anne Carson being celebrated by a university that had denied her tenure remind me of a time in secondary school when a pen pal stopped writing to me because my letters were boring (for context, he was at university). Then I placed in the top three of a national writing contest, and my name appeared in the papers. This young man wrote me a letter that began, unashamedly, with: “Everyone loves a winner.” It taught me a lesson about the benefits of success :) , and about human nature. I never responded.'