Ugandan poet and journalist Arao Ameny has been named winner of The Southern Review’s 2020 James Olney Award for her poem “Home is a Woman,” published in the 2020 spring issue.

The James Olney Award is one of four awards annually presented by The Southern Review to selected contributors “in recognition of an exceptional work that appears in the previous volume year.”

Ameny made the announcement on Facebook, noting that this poem is her first to be published and the award her first.

Arao Ameny is the Founder and Executive Director of the Association of African Journalists and Writers (AAJW), a unified platform for African journalists to connect, network, collaborate, and promote better reporting and understanding of Africa and African immigrant communities living in North America.

To find out about the other winners and to read Ameny’s winning poem, head here.

Congratulations, Arao Ameny!