The Alhaji Arole Agarawu African Poetry Prize
Photograph courtesy of the author
Ameen Animashaun
“Dog Fighting a Heron”
Nigeria / United States • 9-Poem Suite
Ameen is a writer whose work has appeared in Poets.org, Rattle Magazine, Salamander, and elsewhere. A graduate of WashU’s MFA program, he won the 2025 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry, the 2024 Academy of American Poets A.E. Claeyssens Jr. Poetry Prize, and the 2024 Starshine and Clay Fellowship. His full-length manuscript was a finalist for the Sillerman First Book Prize, and his chapbook Calling a Spade is forthcoming through the African Poetry Book Fund and Akashic Books. He lives in Denver, where he works in higher education.
“I believe deeply in the importance of institutions that take African poetry seriously, that make space for the range of work being written across the continent and its diasporas, and that help build a lasting record of that work. To have my poems recognized in this way, and to be part of the beginning of what I believe will become an important prize in African poetry, is an incredible honor.”— Ameen Animashaun
“In Ameen Animashaun’s suite of poems we are introduced to a keen lyrical eye that refuses to separate the interiority of our being from the landscapes we trod on. Animashaun collapses these spaces into a world that gives us a greater sense of relation to the contemporary and historical ruptures we experience. His work moves the reader though a kind of syntactical arch, an arch that has the ability to bend our sense of time. His poems feel always at the edge of something; maybe it’s the edge of a continent, maybe the edge of the world, maybe the edge of time itself, but what is clear is that beyond that edge we sense there is a place of belonging and a glimpse into a much needed mending. These are beautiful poems that make us look beyond our moment and open up to a different future.”
— Matthew Shenoda, Professor & Chair, Department of Literary Arts, Brown University
The Arole Grayling Wraith Prize
Photograph courtesy of the author
Edinam Denoo
“Bonu Bonu Kpoo”
Ghana • Complete Two-Sided Suite
Denoo Edinam Yawo is a Ghanaian poet and writer whose work delves into themes of the body, the politics of language, spirituality, and faith at the intersection of living. She is a 2025 Black Atlantic Residency Fellow, an alumna of the 2025 Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS) Creative Writing Workshop for Emerging Writers, and an alumna of the 2025 Caine Prize Online Editing Workshop. She was Second Runner-Up in 2024 and First Runner-Up in 2025 for the Adinkra Poetry Prize, and a recipient of the 2025 DUAPA Mentorship Program. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Guernica, New Coin, Tampered Press, Ubwali, and elsewhere.
“Receiving the Arole Grayling Wraith Prize is a profound and humbling milestone. I hope these poems carry a fracture of the rhythm, form and truth Alhaji Arole Agarawu gave his craft. I am deeply grateful to the board of trustees, the guest Judge, Matthew Shenoda, and the foundation for this honor and holding this space for the Black lyric.”— Edinam Denoo
As winner of the Continental Prize, media partner Grayling & Wraith will produce a production-grade cinematic poetry adaptation of a selected work from “Bonu Bonu Kpoo” in collaboration with the author.
Honorable Mentions
Rafiat Lamidi
“The Lord of Loneliness”
Nigeria
Rafiat Lamidi is a Nigerian poet. Her works have appeared in Lolwe, Isele Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, HAD, and elsewhere.
Sydney Mayes
“By The Sweat of The Mountain’s Brow”
United States
Sydney Mayes is a poet from Denver, Colorado. She is the 2026 FSG Fellow and winner of the 2025 Adrienne Rich Award. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poets.org, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Kenyon Review.
The Shortlisted Finalists
Sounding the Gong of the Black Lyric
The Alhaji Arole Agarawu African Poetry Prize honors Chief Alhaji Arole Agarawu—songwriter, photographer, and custodian of African oral traditions. We elevate emerging and established Black voices writing across Africa and its global diasporas.