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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color">Oluwafisayo Akinfolami is the winner of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) 2022. </p>



<p class="has-black-color has-text-color">Akinfolami, a student of History and International Studies at the University of Ilorin, emerged the first-place winner for her deeply emotional social comment entry “PALINDROME ZYX”. Fellow shortlisted poet Nwuguru C. Sullivan’s <em>“THE MARVELS OF LITTLE EXTENTS”</em> and Hussani Abdulrahim’s <em>“FELA’S ANTICS OR THE METAPHYSICAL METHOD OF FINDING AN ECLIPSE”</em> emerged as the first and second runners up respectively.</p>



<p class="has-black-color has-text-color">The winners were announced at the 7th annual Words Rhymes &; Rhythm Literary Festival, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wrr.ng/news/arts-creativity-friendship-words-rhymes-rhythm-leaves-another-mark-on-the-nigerian-literary-scene-with-feast-of-words-2022/" data-type="post" data-id="40966" target="_blank">Feast of Words 2022</a> held on the 10th of December 2022 in Ikorodu, Lagos State. They received a cash prize totalling â¦100,000 split three ways: â¦50,000 for the first-place winner, â¦30,000 for the first runner-up and â¦20,000 for the second runner-up.</p>



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<p class="has-background" style="background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(83,255,241) 0%,rgb(151,120,209) 20%,rgb(255,238,253) 40%,rgb(255,233,233) 60%,rgb(251,105,98) 80%,rgba(32,33,35,0.04) 100%)"><strong>Oluwafisayo Akinfolami</strong> is a writer and final-year student of History and International Studies at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN). She came first runner-up in the 2022 UNILORIN SU Writer Competition (Poetry category). A Pushcart nominee, her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Blue Marble Review, San Pedro River Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Perhappen Mag, Undivided Magazine, ARTmosterrific, and elsewhere. </p>



<p class="has-pale-ocean-gradient-background has-background"><strong>Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan</strong> (he/him/his) is a speculative writer of Izzi, Abakaliki ancestry; a Medical Laboratory Science student whose works have been nominated for the Forward Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Best of The Net Award. He was the winner of Write About Now’s Cookout Literary Prize. He has works published or forthcoming at Ink Sweat &; Tears, Augur Mag, Sand Journal, Mudroom Mag, Bracken Mag, The Shore Poetry, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, The Deadlands, West Trade Review, Susquehanna Review, No Contact, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. He is fond of his poorly-lit room from where he tweets @wordpottersull1.</p>
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<p class="has-text-align-left has-very-light-gray-to-cyan-bluish-gray-gradient-background has-background"><strong>Hussani Abdulrahim </strong>is a graduate of Pure Chemistry and a writer from Nigeria. He is a finalist for the 2022 Gerald Kraak Award and the 2021 Albert Jungers Poetry Prize. He is the winner of the 2019 Poetically Written Prose Contest and the ANA Kano/Peace Panel Poetry Prize. He was a semifinalist in the Boston Review 2019 Aura Estrada Short Story Contest. He was also a 2018 Africa Book Club short story contest finalist and was shortlisted for the 2019 ACT Award. He also won the 2016 Green Author Prize. His works are forthcoming or have appeared at Boston Review, The Evergreen Review, The Other Foundation, 2022 Gerald Kraak anthology, 20:35 Africa, IHRAF, praxis, Africa Book Club anthology 2018, and Memento (an anthology of contemporary Nigerian poets). He is currently working on his debut collection of short stories. He lives in Northern Nigeria.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color">The winning poems and the other top 20 entries of the EOPP Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) 2022 are published in the EOPP 2022 anthology <em><a href="https://www.wrr.ng/download/even-a-gun-mistakes-itself-for-safety-eopp-2022-top-20-poems/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“Even A Gun Mistakes Itself For Safety”</a></em>. It is available for free download.</p>


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<h2 class="wp-block-post-title">Call For Submissions: The Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2025</h2>

<div class="wp-block-post-date"><time datetime="2025-11-28T00:24:33+00:00">November 28, 2025</time></div>

<div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">We invite Nigerian poets and literature lovers worldwide to submit their poems to the 2025 Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize for a chance to win â¦200,000 in cash prizes. </p></div>
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OLUWAFISAYO AKINFOLAMI WINS ERIATA ORIBHABOR POETRY PRIZE 2022
