Two Nigerians have emerges joint winners of the 2016 Brunel University African Poetry Prize. This was disclosed in a press release by The Brunel University African Poetry Prize in partnership with Commonwealth Writers:


“PRESS RELEASE – WINNERS 2016

The joint winners of the 2016 Brunel University African Poetry Prize are Gbenga Adesina (Nigeria) and Chekwube O. Danladi (Nigeria).

Gbenga Adesina

Gbenga Adesina lives and writes in Nigeria. His poetry, essays and reviews have been featured or are forthcoming in Harriet’s Blog for the Poetry Foundation and in Jalada, Premium Times, Brittle Paper, Africanwriter.com, One Throne, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner and Soar Africa. In 2015, he was an Open Society Foundation Resident Poet on Goree Island, off the coast of Senegal. His first chapbook, Painter of Water, will be published by APBF in the spring of 2016. Follow him @Gbadenaija. The judges said: ‘Adesina’s poems are powerfully political, beautiful and truly searing. This is a poet with a compelling voice addressing concerns of injustice, memory, migration and family.’

Chekwube O. Danladi

Chekwube O. Danladi was born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised there, as well as in Washington DC and West Baltimore. A Callaloo Fellow, her writing prioritizes themes of teleological displacement, navigations and interrogations of gender and sexuality, and the necessary resilience of African and Afro-diasporic communities. She is currently working towards an MFA in Fiction at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The judges said: ‘Danladi’s poems are glorious, risky, ambitious and fresh. There is a powerful sense of social justice and serious engagement with contemporary and historical African concerns.’”

These winners emerged from a shortlist of ten and this includes the Somali-British poet; past winner, Warsan Shire, whose poetry was recently featured in a music video by the renowned artiste, Beyoncé.

Here is the shortlist:

Gbenga Adesina (Nigeria)
Victoria-Anne Bulley (Ghana)
Mary-Alice Daniel (Nigeria)
Chekwube O. Danladi (Nigeria)
Amy Lukau (Angola)
Ngwatilo Mawiyoo (Kenya)
Momtaza Mehri (Eritrea/Somalia)
Saradha Soobrayen (Mauritius)
Warsan Shire (Somalia)
Chimwemwe Undi (Zambia/Zimbabwe/Namibia)

Congratulations, Gbenga Adesina and Chekwube 0. Danladi

Read more here: http://www.todaynewsreview.com/p/282/two-nigerians-win-the-2016-brunel-university-african-poetry

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