Three of the six: Inua Ellams, Safia Elhillo and Nick Makoha.
This poetry prize, now in its third year, will award the winner £3000 aimed at the development, celebration and promotion of poetry from Africa. The prize is sponsored by Brunel University and Commonwealth Writers. Each poet had to submit 10 poems to be eligible. Out of the 733 entries, the judges came up with a shortlist of six poets, none of whom has yet published a full length poetry book.
The first winner of this prize was Somali poet Warsan Shire in 2013; the second winner was Ethiopian poet Liyou Libsekal last year. The prize works closely with the African Poetry Book Fund and Prairie Schooner poetry journal at the University of Nebraska, and the winners and most of the shortlisted poets of the past two years have all since had poetry pamphlets published with APBF in their ‘New Generation African Poets’ series in the USA, with both Slappering Hol Press and Akashic Books. The shortlisted poets are Safia Elhillo (Sudan), Inua Ellams (Nigeria), Nick Makoha (Uganda), Bernard Matambo (Zimbabwe), Ngwatilo Mawiyoo (Kenya) and Hope Wabuke (Uganda). The winner will be announced on 11th May 2015.
For more information on the poets, visit www.africanpoetryprize.org