The Osundare-Ipadeola Poetry Book Prize is open for poetry submissions from poets. The Prize celebrates the vitality, range, and possibilities of contemporary poetry. It seeks manuscripts that show artistic ambition, originality, imaginative power, technical accomplishment, and a distinctive engagement with language and experience.
It welcomes poetry that takes creative risks and offers fresh ways of encountering the world. No particular theme or school of poetry is prescribed. Beyond the win, the Prize is committed to helping excellent poetry reach readers through publication and engagement with the literary community.
The winner receives ₦150,000 in prize money, a publishing contract with Felis Catus Press, ten author’s copies of the published book, and royalties under the contract terms
Submissions open on Dec 2026 and continues to 15 Mar 2027. Winners are announced on 15 Jun 2027. The winning entry will be published on 15 Aug 2027.
The poetry book prize is specifically open to Nigerian citizens living in Nigeria or abroad and poets of any nationality who reside in Nigeria. The poet must be at least 18 years old at the time of submission. Poets must be currently publishing their first, second, or third full-length collection. Four or more published full-length collections makes you ineligible.
Chapbooks don’t count towards that total; self-published full-length collections do. Poems already published in journals, magazines, anthologies or online are fine but the complete manuscript must not be published as a book yet.
A total 45–60 poems, 60–70 pages including the title page, table of contents and any acknowledgements page is required for this contest. An acknowledgements page listing poems published elsewhere, where applicable. No author name, contact details, biography or other identifying details must appear anywhere in the chapbook.
12 pt Times New Roman, single-spaced, one-inch margins. Poems that need special formatting may depart from this.
The poet must paste the following in the email when submitting:
- Full name, email address and telephone number.
- Current location and full postal address.
- A short author biography, up to 150 words.
- A brief note of where any poems in the manuscript have previously appeared
Send it to theosundareipadeolaprize@gmail.com when submissions open on December 15, 2026.
Good luck poets!
Author
Paul Olayioye
