Penned in Rage Literary Journal is now accepting entries for the 2026 Annual Bridgette James Poetry Competition, opening April 1st and closing midnight BST on April 30th, 2026.

The competition invites poets from Sub-Saharan Africa and its diaspora to submit one original poem on the theme OUTSIDER, written in the first person, no longer than forty lines, and submitted as a Word document.

The theme gestures toward poetry’s long tradition of speaking truth to power on the continent. Organiser Bridgette James names the work of Dennis Brutus and Christopher Okigbo as touchstones, and the call is broad: poets are encouraged to explore political exile, racial identity, migration, disability, queerness, gender, cultural alienation or more interior registers of outsiderness, from the social misfit to the quiet nonconformist.

Heading the judging panel is Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto, author of The Naming (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is joined by Dr Jive Lubbungu of Kwame Nkrumah University, Zambia, and Gary W. Bryant. The reading panel includes Dr Ebenezer Mowete, Chukwuebuka Onyishi, Emerson Sam Navaya, and Traci Neal, with 2025 competition champion Osahon Oka also serving as a panelist.

Prizes include $100 USD for first place, $20 USD for second, $10 USD for third, plus additional charitable awards recognising the youngest submitter, the best African traditional poem, and the best performing female entrant. All placed poems will be published in a winners’ anthology on Amazon.

Submissions are free and open to writers from across the diaspora. Poets should submit through their designated regional port. Port 1 for diaspora entrants based in Europe, the Americas, or Asia; Port 2 for East and West Africa; Port 3 for Southern and Central Africa.

Entries must be accompanied by a 50-word author’s bio including evidence of publication history. The competition does not accept PDFs, simultaneous submissions, AI-generated work, or previously published poems.

Results will be announced across three days: the longlist on May 30th, the shortlist on May 31st, and the winner on June 1st, 2026.

For full guidelines and to submit, visit ellaspoems.com or write to [email protected].