World Literature Today has announced Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo as one of the nine finalists for the 2026 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, in recognition of her acclaimed poetry collection The January Children.

The Neustadt Prize is among the world’s most prestigious international literary honors and is awarded biennially to a living writer in acknowledgment of a significant body of work. It carries a $50,000 cash award, a silver feather sculpture, and an international literary festival held in the laureate’s honor.

“We live in troubled times, and the Neustadt Prize, recognizing the best writers in the world,” notes prize sponsor World Literature Today‘s executive director Robert Con Davis-Undiano, “is a beacon of hope for the human adventure.” “Literature enhances our ability to recognize who we are and who we can become, and the work of the Neustadt jury year after year reflects the ongoing importance of literature in our lives,” he continues.

Elhillo’s The January Children—which won the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and the 2018 Arab American Book Award—serves as her nominated work. Described by Publishers Weekly as “a taut debut collection of heartfelt poems,” the book navigates themes of displacement, identity, and postcolonial legacy. This collection, deeply rooted in Sudanese history and diaspora, was published as part of the African Poetry Book Series of the University of Nebraska Press, and features a foreword by series editor Kwame Dawes.

Born to Sudanese parents and raised between cultures, Elhillo is known internationally for her powerful written and spoken poetry. She holds a BA from NYU’s Gallatin School and an MFA in poetry from The New School. She has received numerous accolades including the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, and recognition in Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” in the Creatives category.

Safia Elhillo’s selection as a finalist places her in a distinguished lineage of international writers, including past Neustadt laureates Gabriel García Márquez, Czesław Miłosz, and Edwidge Danticat. The 2024 Neustadt Prize winner was Mauritian writer Ananda Devi.

The Neustadt Prize is administered by World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma. The 2026 Prize jurors—Threa Almontaser, Maya Arad, Polina Barskova, Victoria Chang, Elisabeth Jaquette, Beena Kamlani, Shereen Malherbe, Alejandro Puyana, and notably Nigerian writer Iheoma Nwachukwu—will meet to select the 2026 laureate during the 2025 Neustadt Lit Fest, scheduled for October 20–22, where the winner will be announced on October 21.