Iheoma J. Uzomba has won the 2026 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry. The Nigerian poet’s “Father’s Love” was selected by this year’s judging panel, chaired by Ladan Osman, alongside Tsitsi Jaji and Leila Chatti, from a competitive shortlist that skewed heavily Nigerian. She receives USD $1,500, and her poems will be published on the African Poetry Book Fund’s website in May.

Uzomba is not a new name to those paying attention. She is a winner of the Lagos-London Poetry Prize, a fellow at The Undertow programme, and has appeared in some of the most respected poetry journals working today — Palette Poetry, Rattle, The Shore, Kissing Dynamite, and the Aké Review, among others. The Evaristo Prize is her largest win to date, and it feels earned.

Two honourable mentions were also awarded: McLord Selasi Azalekor of Ghana for Another Name for Fire, and Raneem Bakir Alia of Morocco for Matrilineage Tryptych.

Originally founded in 2012 by Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize winner, President of the Royal Society of Literature, and one of the most consequential figures in contemporary British and African letters, the book prize ran for a decade as the Brunel International African Poetry Prize with the explicit aim of nurturing a new generation of African poets capable of becoming an international presence. In 2022, it was renamed in Evaristo’s honour and handed over to the African Poetry Book Fund, based at Brown University, which has administered it since. The prize remains open exclusively to African poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, making it one of the few major awards deliberately designed to catch writers early.

The full shortlist featured Alobu Emmanuel, Joemario Umana, Joel Oyeleke, Chisom Eze, Migwi Mwangi (Kenya), and Tim Fab-Eme, a strong gathering of emerging voices, four of them Nigerian.

For Uzomba, this is the moment the wider world starts paying attention. It won’t be the last. Congratulations, Uzomba!