Call for Entries: Joe Ushie Poetry Prize 2026 ($500 prize) Deadline: 31 July, 2025

Applications are invited for the Joe Ushie Poetry Prize 2026. The Joe Ushie Poetry Prize is a literary award established to honor the legacy of Professor Joseph Akawu Ushie – a distinguished poet, literary scholar and seasoned educator in the Department of English, University of Uyo, Nigeria.

The Prize celebrates excellence in poetry and encourages emerging and established poets to share their voices, while fostering a vibrant literary community. The Prize is an initiative of the Joe Ushie Literature Foundation, and it confers a cash award on the author of the best submitted poem in a given year.

Prize

• The Prize money is $500 (USD).

Eligibility

• Entrants must be at least 18 years old at the time of submission.
• Entrants must be Nigerian citizens and must submit proof of citizenship in the form of their international passport data page or their national identity card, along with their entry.
• Entries must be original unpublished work not plagiarised or AI generated; poetry previously broadcast online is considered published.
• Each entry must not exceed fifty (50) lines, and a maximum of three poems is allowed per entrant.
• Family members and close friends of the organisers and judges are not allowed to enter.

Application

• Entries must be received by the deadline; any entry received after the deadline will be automatically disqualified. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. GMT on 31 July 2025.
• Entries are to be sent as email attachments, along with proof of Nigerian citizenship, to [email protected]
• The subject line of the submission email should read as follows: [NAME OF ENTRANT]’S ENTRY FOR THE 2026 JOE USHIE POETRY PRIZE

Deadline: July 31, 2025

For more information, visit Joe Ushie Poetry Prize.