Nigerian-Canadian poet Jide Salawu has been shortlisted for not one but two of the League of Canadian Poets’ 2026 Book Awards, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for a debut collection, and the Raymond Souster Award for a new book of poetry by a League member — both for his debut collection Contraband Bodies, published by NeWest Press!

The double nomination is a rare distinction and a striking debut onto the Canadian literary awards circuit for a poet whose work is rooted in Black diasporic experience, questions of belonging, and the persistent condition of out-of-placeness that defines so much of Black migrant life. Each award carries a $2,000 prize for the winner, to be announced on June 3, 2026.

Salawu’s writings explore the question of Black mobilities, diasporic struggles, nationhood, history, cultural identity, and socio-justice. He is also the author of Preface for Leaving Homeland, published under the African Poetry Book Fund Boxset in 2019, and his individual work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Walrus, Salt Hill, CBC, Literary Review of Canada, Prairie Schooner, and LitHub, among others. A recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, Salawu currently holds a Black Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also leading a community creative project that names, probes, and reimagines seasonal struggles in the Afro-Canadian diaspora and beyond.

In his own words, Salawu described the collection as a poetic opportunity to capture the persistence of out-of-placeness, crisis of belonging, and the particular pressures faced by Black migrant subjects. “I am excited to be shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Raymond Souster Award,” he said, “because it means people are finding meaning and resonance in my work, and that the universe of insights it offers is expanding. A good pat on the back, I say.”

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award shortlist also includes Qurat Dar for Non-Prophet (Goose Lane Editions), Kyo Lee for i cut my tongue on a broken country (Arsenal Pulp Press), Todd Meyers for Gone Gone (Duke University Press), Hajer Mirwali for Revolutions (Talonbooks), and Christine Wu for Familial Hungers (Brick Books). The Raymond Souster Award shortlist includes Farah Ghafoor for Shadow Price (House of Anansi Press), Cecily Nicholson for Crowd Source(Talonbooks), Rebecca Salazar for antibody (McClelland & Stewart), Anna Swanson for The Garbage Poems (Brick Books), and Gillian Sze for An Orange, A Syllable (ECW Press).

The winners will be announced on June 3, 2026. A shortlist reading celebrating all finalists will take place online on Tuesday, June 2 at 8pm ET, registration is open at poets.ca. For a poet whose work tracks the enduring precariousness of Black life across borders, having that work recognised twice by one of Canada’s most respected poetry organisations is not simply a career milestone. It is confirmation that the stories Contraband Bodies carries are landing exactly where they need to.

Congratulations, Jide!