What we look for.

Your history and heritage: personal, yet specific and generic. Poetry with the alertness of a cat's motion, the sharpness of their eyes, the emotion of their intimacy.

No set theme. Just quality poems in a collection that is coherent, concise and clear.

Sponsor or partner with the Prize.

We welcome individuals, foundations, cultural organisations, educational institutions and responsible businesses committed to Nigerian poetry and reading culture.

Sponsors and partners will be acknowledged here as partnerships are confirmed. This is the inaugural edition, so there are no past winners yet.

Yahuza philosophizes, he grieves, he wishes, he sings like any mourning person would a dirge.

Michael Imossan, winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry, 2024

Because grieving is another form of love, Adamu Yahuza's The Rainbow is Not as Beautiful as My Ruins serves as an homage to his late brother, written in profound language.

Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi, author of Cadaver of Red Roses (Derricotte/Eady Chapbook Prize 2024)

With tender ferocity, Abdullahi navigates the abyss left by the departure of a beloved brother, laying bare the brutal beauty of bereavement. These verses make the reader tremble in vulnerability.

Bà Sabouke, author of Meccan Spring

There is something so personal in "the rainbow is not as beautiful as my ruins" that feels like the poet is narrating our own experiences. The poet finds poetic ways to express his grief, telling the story of loss in a language that resonates with us all, and in clear, crisp images.

Taofeek Ayeyemi, author of Tongueless Secrets

Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi

Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi, THE PLOB, TPC V, whose works have appeared in Lolwe, Strange Horizons, Chestnut Review, A Long House, Rough Cut Press, The Temz Review, and other places, is a poet from Borgu, Nigeria. He is a pioneer resident of Muktar Aliyu Art Residency, Minna, Niger State. He is a finalist of the 2024 Garden Party Collective chapbook contest, a Best of the Net nominee, and second-place winner of both the first edition of the Hassan Sulaiman Gimba Esq Poetry Prize and the Bill Ward Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers 2023. He is a graduate of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.

X @yahuza_theplob · Instagram @Official_yahuzeey

Wisdom's images stun, deject, and (when he wills) inspire hope. Most importantly, these poems pass the litmus test of Dickinson's famed saying "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." Reading these poems, I felt as such over and over. So will you.

Pamilerin Jacob, author of Cordial with Disillusionment

Wisdom's debut wears the earthiness of time and intent. This brilliant collection is a cursive junction where the self's struggles meet the shared ones, the past flows into the present, the child questioning the man he became.

Olumide Manuel, author of Hope Monger

One thing about "Children of the Soil" is its unique voice. It tells the story of different tribes of a nation, united by experience: the witnesses of slavery, both from outside and within. The manuscript takes us back in time, and leads us to the future through the unsteady present.

Taofeek Ayeyemi, author of Tongueless Secrets

Wisdom Adediji

Wisdom Adediji, NGP XI, is a Nigerian genre-bending writer. His works have appeared on Icefloe Press, Blue Press, NND Poetry Column and elsewhere. He is a poetry editor at Candid Review. He currently studies geography at the University of Ibadan and writes from there.

X @wisdomadediji

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Henry Opeyemi

Henry Opeyemi is a writer, storyteller and poet who wants to someday sell out the O2 Arena as a performance poet. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Autopsy of Old Fractured Wounds (Ghost City Press, 2024) and The Volume of Constant Screams (Cat Courtyard Press, 2025). His work has appeared on Poetry Column-NND, One Poem Only, Ghost City Press and elsewhere. When he is not writing, he is teaching hearing-impaired kids how to play chess.

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Ridwan Àdìsá Fasasi

Ridwan Àdìsá Fasasi, SWAN I, is a Nigerian editor, writer, and art curator of Yoruba descent. He is a finalist for The Garden Party Collective Chapbook Contest, and a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee whose works have appeared on ANMLY Lit, Chestnut Review, Frontier Poetry, Palette, Eunoia Review, Akpata, Lucent Dreaming, Strange Horizons, Hindsight Creative, among others. He is the winner of the 2024 Labari Prize for Poetry and the Ignyte Award for Best Speculative Poetry, and the Second Prize Winner of The Kayode Aderinokun Poetry Prize. His works have also been shortlisted for the SprinNG Annual Poetry Contest, Gbemisola Adeoti Poetry Prize, Lucky Jefferson Poetry & Prose Contest, Splendor of Dawn Poetry Contest, SOBAF Poetry Slam, 2024 Akachi Prize for Literature and many others. He is currently a reader at Anomalous Press and works as a reviewer at D’lit Review.

X @Ibn_Yushau44 · Email ridwanfasasi44@gmail.com

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Okoli Stephen Nonso

Okoli Stephen Nonso (he/him) is a Nigerian poet and graduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His writing explores places, history, memories, and cultural identity. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Indianapolis Review, Ellipsis Literature & Art, Good River Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Feral Journal, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Brittle Paper, The Bookends Review, Olney Magazine, Progenitor Art and Literary Journal, Ofi Press, and elsewhere. A co-winner of the 2026 Collins Family Endowed Scholarship and a recipient of the 2025 UAB English Department Achievement Scholarship, he was named The Muse Journal’s Best Literary Artist of the Year in 2024. His poems have also earned recognition as first runner-up in the Fresh Voice Foundation Poetry Contest and third prize in the Akuko Magazine Inaugural Poetry Prize (2021). He is a Longleaf Scholar. In 2021, he was featured in Who’s Who of Emerging Writers by Sweetycat Press.

X @OkoliStephen7