The Journal of African Youth Literature (JAY Lit) has announced the winners of the 2025 JAY Lit Awards, recognising the best work published across Issues 9 and 10 of the journal. Ghanaian poet Mariam Mohammed, Nigerian fiction writer Olayinka Yaqub, and Kenyan essayist Naomi Nduta Waweru have each claimed a prize.

Now in its second year, the awards honour poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in a process judged across three tiers—with the final selections made by external guest judges Bash Amuneni (Poetry), Eugen Bacon (Fiction), and Frances Ogamba (Non-Fiction).

JAY Lit Prize for Poetry

“The B(lack)ody as a Map to Self” by Mariam Mohammed (Issue 9) – WINNER

“The Cub Who Sought a Cherub” by Princewill Ticha (Issue 10) – 1ST RUNNER-UP

“Battery’s Scent” by Anna Zgambo (Issue 9) – 2ND RUNNER-UP

“Remembrance” by Ferdinand Emmanuel Somtochukwu (Issue 10) – 3RD RUNNER-UP

JAY Lit Prize for Fiction

“The Grand Funeral of Baba Alamu” by Olayinka Yaqub (Issue 9) – WINNER

“All Things Go” by Fatima Okhuosami (Issue 9) – 1ST RUNNER-UP

“The One Who Works in the Garden” by Fiske Nyirongo (Issue 10) – 2ND RUNNER-UP

JAY Lit Prize for Non-Fiction

“Poems Holding My Hand” by Naomi Nduta Waweru (Issue 10) – WINNER

“Duala Living” by Rukayat Ogunlana (Issue 9) – 1ST RUNNER-UP

“The Architecture of Promises” by Taslimah Woli (Issue 10) – 2ND RUNNER-UP

Mohammed’s winning poem drew particular praise for its precision and emotional weight. Amuneni described the work as placing every image with care and every fracture intentionally, saying her attention to detail cuts with surgical exactness into lineage, body, and belonging, leaving behind a tenderness that lingers long after the final line.

In fiction, Yaqub’s “The Grand Funeral of Baba Àlàmú” is a second-person story that Bacon described as confronting the rawness of loss, rivalry, jealousy, and unrequited love. The story frames a husband’s death within a plural marriage through what Bacon called an almost darkly humorous twist of fate.

“Where is Daddy? Has he died yet? Where am I? Am I born yet?” The repeated questions feel at once like a search for answers and a steady unmaking. Each interrogative word fractures the speaker into smaller pieces, the self scattered across an unresolved past.

— Frances Ogamba on Naomi Nduta Waweru’s winning essay

Ogamba described Waweru’s non-fiction essay as braiding loss into spoken language—fashioning, through that craft, a possible landing for the unending plummet of hearts long unseated by grief.

The awards are managed by JAY Lit editor Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim, who has been clear that the spirit of the prize is not competitive at its core. “We’re very proud of another year recognising the best of talent published in our journal,” Ibrahim said. “As the name implies, it is an award, not a competition—something to encourage more people to write and believe in the power of their words.”

Each overall winner receives $50 and a feature in the JAY Lit Spotlight Series. Following an anonymous donation, fiction runners-up will also each receive £10. All winners and runners-up are named 2025 JAY Lit Editor’s Choice Commendation recipients, as selected by the category editors—Gabriel Awuah Mainoo (Poetry), Deborah Oluniran-Adeniyi (Fiction), and Iruoma Chukwuemeka (Non-Fiction).

The 2025 winners join previous recipients Timi Sanni, Salama Wainana, Chidera Nwume, and Frank Njugi.