Idumaese Alao Prize For Literature 2025 Call For Entries

Idumaese Alao Prize For Literature 2025 Call For Entries

Idumaese Alao Foundation (IAF) has announced the call for entries for the Idumaese Alao Prize For Literature 2025. The prize which was instituted in 2024 in memory of Idumaese Alao is aimed at spotlighting and rewarding talented writers and literary artists across Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. The genre under focus is poetry and the jurors for the prize are the Nigerian writer and scholar Osieka Osinimu Alao and US-based Nigerian poet and Assistant Professor of English Saddiq Dzukogi. The foundation also announced that the winner will receive 100,000 naira while the runner up will receive 50,000 naira only.

Submission Guidelines

1. 1. The theme is The Beginning and End of Humanity. We are on the lookout for a variety of creative, brave, and experimental interpretations of the theme.
2. 2. Send only UNPUBLISHED work which is not under consideration elsewhere.
3. 3. Only ONE entry per author is permitted and should not be longer than 40 lines.
4. 4. Only Nigerian writers, 18 years and above, residing anywhere in the world are eligible.
5. 5. Entries should be sent as word documents, Times New Roman 12, 1.5 line spacing.
6. 6. There should be no identifying information on the entry.
7. 7. Entries should be accompanied by a cover letter in the body of the mail, comprising author’s third-person brief biography, location, and author’s picture (portrait).
8. 8. All entries should be sent to idumaesealaofoundation@omniinkus.com with the subject, 2025 IDUMAESE ALAO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE.
9. 9. Submissions are open through May 10, 2025.
10. 10. Plagiarism and use of Artificial Intelligence will not be tolerated.
11. 11. By submitting your work, you give Idumaese Alao Foundation right to publish it in the prize anthology, both online and in print.
12. 12. The jury’s decision is final.

The Jurors

Osieka Osinimu Alao is a Nigerian writer, poet, scholar, editor, humanitarian, and a media and culture enthusiast. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. He was longlisted for the Toyin Falola Prize 2024, and the Second Prize Winner of the inaugural Rhonda Gail Williford Award for Poetry 2023. His works are featured in The Offing, ANMLY, The Shore, and Lumiere Review. He is @OOAlao_ on X & Instagram.

Saddiq Dzukogi is a Nigerian poet and assistant professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla, selected by Carolyn Forché as winner of the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the 2022 Julie Suk Award. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships from the Nebraska Art Council, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, PEN America, and Ebedi International Residency. His poetry is featured in various publications, including POETRY, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Poetry London, Guernica, Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Prairie Schooner. He lives and writes from Starkville, Mississippi, and is at work on his next book, an epic poem, Bakandamiya.