The African Poetry Book Fund has crowned Afia Ansong as the winner of the 2026 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her collection, I buried [her] in a field of lemongrass. They made this announcement on their Facebook page on June 30, 2026.

Ansong will receive a $1,000 USD cash award and publication of her manuscript as part of the African Poetry Book Series by the University of Nebraska Press.

Afia Ansong is the author of three chapbooks: Black Ballad (Bull City Press, 2022), Try Kissing God (Akashic Books, 2020), and American Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, Four Way Review, Maine Review, and other journals. She is a recipient of the MaCall Johnson Fellowship and the founder of The Adinkra Projects, which provides poetry workshops and supports emerging Ghanaian writers. She is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Rhode Island.

The judges of the prize named three finalists: A Brief History of Seeds by Wale Ayinla (Nigeria), Cataclysm by Abduljalal Musa Aliyu (Nigeria), and Eschatologies by Chimezie Umeoka (Nigeria).