Nwuguru C. Sullivan, Hussani Abdulrahim, and Oluwafisayo Akinfolami are the TOP 3 finalists of the 2022 Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (EOPP) for their poems “THE MARVELS OF LITTLE EXTENTS”, “FELA’S ANTICS OR THE METAPHYSICAL METHOD OF FINDING AN ECLIPSE” and “PALINDROME ZYX” respectively.
The finalist beat other poets that made the EOPP 2022 TOP 10 shortlist: Inimfon Inyang-Kpanantia, Ebuka Evans, Nnadi Samuel, Blessing Omeiza Ojo, Olalekan Daniel Kehinde, Okoronkwo Chisom, and Wuguru Chidiebere Sullivan, to the top three spots for a chance to win a share of the ₦100,000 cash prize.
The eventual winner and runner-ups of the EOPP 2022 will be announced at the Words Rhymes & Rhythm Literary Festival, Feast of Words 2022, scheduled to hold in Ikorodu, Lagos State, on the 10th of December 2022. A cash prize of ₦50,000 will be awarded to the first-place winner, while the first and second runners-up will get ₦30,000 and ₦20,000 cash prizes, respectively. An anthology featuring the top 30 poems, and titled after the winning poem, will be published and available for free download.
Oluwafisayo Akinfolami 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.
Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan (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.
Hussani Abdulrahim 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.
Past winners of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize include Nwakanma Chika (2012), Madu Chisom Kingdavid (2013), Darlington Ekene Ogugua (2014), Ajise Vincent (2015), Frank Eze (2016), Mesioye Johnson (2017), Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto (2018), David Chimeremeze Okafor (2019) and Ayokunle Samuel Betiku (2020).