Romeo Oriogun from Nigeria has emerged the winner of the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize for his “beautiful and deeply passionate” writing on masculinity and desire.

Now in its fifth year, the £3,000 major poetry prize, sponsored by Brunel University London and Commonwealth Writers, is aimed at the development, celebration and promotion of poetry from Africa. It is open to African poets worldwide who have not yet published a full poetry collection.

The judges were unanimous this year in their decision that among a shortlist of ten stunning new poets selected from nearly 1,200 entries, Oriogun – who only began writing three years ago – should receive the prize for his outstanding poetry.

The judges said: “Romeo Oriogun is a hugely talented and urgent new voice in African poetry. His poems are deeply passionate, shocking, imaginative, complex and ultimately beautiful explorations of masculinity, sexuality and desire in a country that does not recognise LGBT rights. We wish him all the best for the future.”

Oriogun lives and writes in Nigeria. His poems have been featured in Brittle Paper, African Writer, Expound, Praxis, and others. He is the author of Burnt Men, an electronic chapbook published by Praxis Magazine.

Now in its fifth year, the £3,000 major poetry prize, sponsored by Brunel University London and Commonwealth Writers, is aimed at the development, celebration and promotion of poetry from Africa. It is open to African poets worldwide who have not yet published a full poetry collection.

The judges were unanimous this year in their decision that among a shortlist of ten stunning new poets selected from nearly 1,200 entries, Oriogun – who only began writing three years ago – should receive the prize for his outstanding poetry.

The judges said: “Romeo Oriogun is a hugely talented and urgent new voice in African poetry. His poems are deeply passionate, shocking, imaginative, complex and ultimately beautiful explorations of masculinity, sexuality and desire in a country that does not recognise LGBT rights. We wish him all the best for the future.”

Oriogun lives and writes in Nigeria. His poems have been featured in Brittle Paper, African Writer, Expound, Praxis, and others. He is the author of Burnt Men, an electronic chapbook published by Praxis Magazine Online.

Oriogun was one of four Nigerian poets to reach this year’s shortlist, which included Sahro Ali (Somalia); Leila Chatti (Tunisia); Kayo Chingonyi (Zambia); Saddiq Dzukogi (Nigeria); Yalie Kamara (Sierra Leone); Kechi Nomu (Nigeria); Richard Oduor Oduku (Kenya); Rasaq Malik (Nigeria); and Nick Makoha (Uganda).

The judges this year were the poets and academics: Chris Abani (Northwestern University); Kwame Dawes (University of Nebraska); Safia Elhillo (winner of the 2015 Prize); Patricia Jabbeh Welsley (Penn State University) and chair and founder, Bernardine Evaristo (Brunel University London).

The Prize is a partnership between Brunel and Commonwealth Writers, and works closely with Kwame Dawes and the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) at the University of Nebraska.

All the winners and most of the shortlisted poets of the past four years have had poetry pamphlets published with APBF in their New Generation African Poets series of box sets, in partnership with US publishers Slappering Hol Press and Akashic Books. Some of these poets have also published, or are about to publish, their first full length collections.

Source:http://www.africanpoetryprize.org/winner-2017-romeo-oriogun

GOOD FOR HIM