Threepeat for Nigeria as Michael Imossan Wins 2024 Sillerman Poetry Prize
The African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) has announced Nigerian poet, Michael Imossan as the winner of the 2024 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. This is for his collection “All That Refuses to Die.” Imossan becomes the third Nigerian poet in a row to win the Sillerman Prize.
Every year, APBF invites African poets who are yet to publish their first book to make submissions of their manuscripts, and stand a chance of winning the coveted prize. In addition to getting a publication deal, the winning poets receive a $1000 cash award. Michael succeeds two other Nigerians who have won it in the last two years, Abu Bakr Sadiq in 2023 for Leaked Footages, Tares Oburumu in 2022 for Origins Of The Syma Species. In total, he is the twelfth poet to win the prize.
The judging panel for the Sillerman Prize includes Chris Abani, Gabeba Baderoon, Aracelis Girmay, John Keene, Matthew Shenoda, Mahtem Shiferraw, and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, with Kwame Dawes, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund and the Schooner’s Editor-in-Chief. Imossan’s “All That Refuses to Die” is praised by the panel, writing that the manuscript’s “exquisite language, piercingly memorable lines [are] elegiac but with an insistence on beauty and love.” — Prof. Gabeba Baderoon. Two other Nigerians are finalists of the 2024 prize: Animashaun Ameen for “Adam Vomited the Apple” and Kanyinsola Olorunnisola for “Ara’Luebo”.
Michael Imossan is an Ibibio poet from Nigeria. He is the author of the award-winning chapbook For the Love of Country and Memory (Poetrycolumnnd, 2022) and the pamphlet, A Prelude to Caving (Konyashamsrumi, 2023). Interestingly, he was a semi-finalist of the 2023 Sillerman Prize for his earlier manuscript, “Broken in Three Places”. His comeback is a testament to his industry and consistency.
Congratulations to Michael and to Nigerian poets who stay winning!
