When the Trees Fought Back

BIO: Udochukwu Chidera also known as Chidera is a Nigerian writer and pharmacist of Igbo descent. Chi Deraa won the second prize in the 2024 Dissolution Climate Change Essay Contest organized by Litfest Bergen Norway. She was a runner-up in the 2024 South African Bloody Parchment Horrorfest competition. She is a recipient of the Illino Media Writing Residency and a Scarborough Screenwriting Residency. She was shortlisted for the 2024 AKACHI CHUKWUEMEKA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE. Her poem has also made it to the PIN Best Poems of 2024 Anthology. She also won second prize in the 2023 AS ABUGI PRIZE and the 2024 IKENGA SHORT STORY PRIZE. She was top three in the K&L PRIZE FOR FICTION and the 2023 E.C MICHEALS SHORT STORY PRIZE. She took the third position in the 2023 BKPW Poetry Contest. She was also shortlisted for the 2023 The Green We Left Behind CNF contest organized by the Arts Lounge Literary Magazine. She was top 10 in the 2023 LIGHT poetry contest. She is the inaugural winner of the 2023 monthly writing contest for the Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation, Lagos chapter. She won the 2022 Movement of the People Poetry Contest, the 2022 Shuzia Songs of Zion Poetry Contest, the 2022 Shuzia Prose Contest, and the September 2022 Association of Creative Writers Contest and is a four-time D’Lit review contest winner. She won first runner-up in the prose category at the 2022 Lagos Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation contest. She also won an outstanding entry at the 2022 Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology. She also won the 2021 UNIZIK School of Pharmacy Poetry Contest and the 2021 Deborah Itohan Poetry Contest. She is a contributor/ forthcoming at IHRAF Thorn, Tears, and Treachery Anthology for the Sudanese War, Libre Lit, Akpata Magazine, Aprilcentaur, Mythic Picnic, Feminists in Kenya, Lagos Review, Non-Profit Quarterly Magazine, Love and Other Stupid Things Anthology, Fortunate Traveller, Indaba Bafazi SFF Anthology Tabono Anthology, Tush Magazine, 2022 Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, Conscio Magazine, Ngiga Review, World Voices Magazine, Valiant Scribe, Our Stories Defined Anthology, Writer’s Hangout Initiative, Arts Lounge Literary Magazine, amongst others.