After 10 years of celebrating the work of emerging African poets, the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, formerly supported by Brunel University in London, will be renamed the Evaristo African Poetry Prize. The award will be managed by the African Poetry Book Fund at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A partner close to APBF, the Brunel International African Poetry Prize aimed to “encourage a new generation of poets who could one day become an international presence”. The excellence of BIAPP the winners continue to be celebrated internationally, as many poets have gone on to publish full chapbooks, collections of poetry, and won more awards.

The Brunel International African Poetry Prize recently closed its submission window and will announce the winner of the prize in May 2022.

The Evaristo African Poetry Prize is named in honor of British writer Bernardine Evaristo, who founded BIAPP in 2012 and managed it for 10 years, partly funding it herself with contributions from Commonwealth Writers of the Commonwealth Foundation. A member of the board of directors of APBF and professor of creative writing at Brunel University in London, Evaristo is the author of 10 books of fiction, poetry, essays, drama, criticism and journalism. Her work explores the narratives and stories of the African diaspora through innovative aesthetic forms.

Recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Evaristo was the first black woman and black person in Britain to win the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel “Girl, Woman, Other”. She is also the first color writer to be president of the Royal Society of Literature. His lifetime scholarships include Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 2004; Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, 2020 and International Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2021.

His first non-fiction book, “Manifesto: On Never Giving Up”, was recently published by Penguin UK in 2021 and is coming from Grove Atlantic United States in 2022.

The first Evaristo African Poetry Prize will begin accepting nominations from African poets in October 2022.