JUDGES FOR THE 2027 EVARISTO PRIZE

We are pleased to announce the judges for this year’s Evaristo Prize for African Poetry: Romeo Oriogun, Uhuru Phalafala, and Juliane Okot Bitek.

The 2027 Evaristo judging panel will be chaired by Romeo Oriogun, the author of The Gathering of Bastards (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) and Sacrament of Bodies (University of Nebraska Press, 2020). Oriogun is the 2017 winner of this prize, when it was formerly known as the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. He is the first openly queer writer to win the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature with his book of poems, Nomad, and his poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Prairie Schooner, Harvard Review, Narrative Magazine, and more.

Uhuru Phalafala is a senior lecturer of English literature at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. She is the author of Keorapetse Kgositsile and the Black Arts Movement: Poetics of Possibility and coeditor of Keorapetse Kgositsile: Collected Poems, 1969–2018 (Nebraska, 2023).

Juliane Okot Bitek is the author of four books – three collections of poetry and a novel. Her most recent work is We, the Kindling (2025, Alchemy), is a fictionalized account of women survivors of the Lord’s Resistance Army. She teaches at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, which occupies the lands of the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee people.

This panel of exceptional poets and writers will work together to review submissions and determine the winner of $1,500 USD and publication on the African Poetry Book Fund website.

Established first as the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (BIAPP) in 2012 by British writer Bernardine Evaristo, who founded and managed the prize for ten years, the Evaristo Prize was renamed and passed on to the African Poetry Book Fund in 2022. A close partner of APBF, the BIAPP sought to “encourage a new generation of poets who might one day become an international presence.” Indeed, BIAPP and Evaristo winners alike continue to be celebrated globally as many of the poets have gone to publish chapbooks, full-length poetry collections, and win more prizes.

To enter this contest, you must submit a collection of exactly ten poems (no more, no less) consisting of no more than forty lines via Submittable. Check out the Evaristo Contest page for more information regarding eligibility, manuscript requirements, and past winners.