Eight poets have been shortlisted for the 2021 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. The prize, worth £3,000, was initiated in 2012 by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo who is also Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London, UK, with the aim of developing, celebrating and promoting poetry from Africa.
This year’s judging panel chaired by Karen McCarthy Woolf includes Rustum Kozain (South Africa), and Makhosazana Xaba (South Africa). The shortlisted poets are,
Kweku Abimbola (Gambia)
Arao Ameny (Uganda)
Isabelle Baafi (South Africa)
Asmaa Jama (Somalia)
Tumello Motabola (Lesotho)
Oluwadare Popoola (Nigeria)
Yomi Sode (Nigeria)
Othuke Umukoro (Nigeria)
Karen McCarthy Woolf said: “This year’s shortlist includes an exciting array of new and emerging voices from across the continent and diaspora, from South Africa and Lesotho, to Nigeria, Gambia, Somalia and Uganda. Thematically, the poems have shared and diverse concerns, from Yomi Sodé’s memorial to Damilola Taylor to Nathan Kweku John’s meditation on Ashanti naming traditions that also commemorates victims of police brutality. Running throughout these portfolios, there was a sense of urgency and a spirit of witness leavened by a capacity to address complex scenarios amongst the political wreckage that has characterised this specific moment in the early 21st century.”
Previous winners have been Warsan Shire (2013), Liyou Libsekal (2014), Safia Elhillo and Nick Makoha (2015), Gbenga Adesina and Chekwube O. Danladi (2016), Romeo Oriogun (2017), Momtaza Mehri, Theresa Lola, and Hiwot Adilow (2018), Nadra Mabrouk and Jamila Osman (2019), and Rabha Ashry (2020).
The winner of the award will be announced on May 11, 2021.
Visit here for more info on the shortlisted poets.
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