The prize will open for entries from Oct. 1st to Nov. 1st 2021.
The shortlist is announced in March & the winner/s in May 2022
Rules: General
1. The Prize is open to African poets, defined as those who were born in Africa, or who are nationals of an African country, or whose parents are African. Poets who do not fulfil this criteria are ineligible.
2. The Prize is open to African poets who have not yet had a full-length poetry book published at the time of submission. Self-published poetry books, chapbooks and pamphlets are exempt from this stipulation.
3. Only poems written in English are accepted. Poems translated into English are also accepted with 50% of the Prize money going to the translator.
4. The Prize opens for submissions from October 1st 2021 to November 1st 2021. Each entrant must submit 10 poems to be eligible, no more and no less. There is no stipulation as to the content of submitted poems.
6. The poems may have been previously published or won previous awards.
7. All entries must be submitted via email only to BUAPP@brunel.ac.uk.
An acknowledgement will be sent. (Please note that email enquiries about the rules will not be answered.)
8. Under no circumstances can alterations be made to poems once entered.
9. Under no circumstances will the organisers or judges enter into discussions with entrants who have submitted poems.
10. The organisers reserve the right to not award the Prize if, in the judges’ opinion, such an action is justified. The organisers also reserve the right to split the Prize if they decide that more than one poet is worthy of winning it.
11. The judges’ decision is final and they will not enter into any correspondence with entrants regarding their decisions.
Rules: Poems
12. Poems must be the original work of the entrant.
13. Each poem must have a title or a number
14. Poems should be single spaced.
15. There is no stipulation regarding font type and size.
16. Poems must be emailed in a SINGLE Word document attachment (not a PDF) – with an index cover page that contains the entrants’ name, nationality, country of birth, full address including country of permanent residence, personal email address and telephone number. Any applicants who submit a PDF will be discounted from the Prize.
17. The submission document must be name of the poet, not the name of the prize.
18. The entire submission must be in black ink, no colours.
19. Individual poems received as separate file attachments and poems sent within the body of an email will be automatically rejected with no notification to the poet.
20. People who have entered previously for the prize can re-submit again but it is advisable to re-submit with new poems. Previously there was a rule about a shortlisted poet not submitting two years in a row. However this rule has now been suspended.
21. All shortlisted and winning poets agree to allowing this website to post their ten submitted poems on here.
Rules: Winner Only
21.The winner must be available via email to reply promptly to correspondence. The winner will be required to provide a biography and photograph and to be available for media interviews, either online, by phone or, if geographically possible, in person.
22. It will be helpful if the winner has or creates a social media presence but this is in no way a condition of winning the prize.
23. The copyright of the winner’s poems remains with the winning poet.