Poetry has consistently served as a powerful medium for storytelling and self-expression, and Nigerian poets have made significant contributions to this tradition over the years. However, in Nigerian poetry, as an industry, women were historically constrained by systemic barriers affecting all women across industries. For a long time, the industry was predominantly associated with male pioneers such as Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, Niyi Osundare and others.
The emergence of female poets like Mabel Segun, Lola Shoneyin, Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Jumoke Verisimo and Maryam Hassan, along with several local and international organisations, has begun to transform the landscape of Nigerian poetry. Some of these organisations are inclusive, while others focus specifically on women and people of color, thus opening up new opportunities for contemporary poets. One of these organisations is the Africa Poetry Book Fund (APBF).
The African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) is an organisation that is committed to sharing African art through its book series, contests, workshops and seminars. It is a major poetry platform that accepts poetry manuscripts and chapbooks from published and unpublished African poets.
The New Generation African Poets Box Set, published in collaboration with Akashic Books, is one of APBF’s most prestigious initiatives. Annually, it spotlights eight to twelve emerging African poets who have yet to publish a full-length collection. Since its inception in 2014, the series has published nine boxsets, featuring 87 poets from over 20 African countries, making it one of the most important platforms for contemporary African and Nigerian poetry.
The forthcoming 2025 New Generation African Poetry Book Fund Boxset features 10 African Poets, including AbdulKareem AbdulKareem, Aria Deemie, Micheal Immosan, Adesiyan Oluwapelumi, Leano Debra Ranko, Timi Sanni, Tjizembua Tjikuzu, and three young Nigerian women, including Rahma Jimoh, Hauwa Saleh, and Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya-Okorie.
While three or more women have been previously selected in a box set, the selection of these three Nigerian women in the forthcoming 2025 box set further reinforces the capability of Naija’s creativity beyond the male gender. This is not only a win for the poets themselves but a significant milestone for women writers in Nigeria and across Africa. The inclusion of these women testifies to the continuously rising power of women’s voices in Nigerian poetry.
Meet the Three Nigerian Female Poets Selected for the African Poetry Book Fund 2025 Box Set
Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya-Okorie
Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya-Okorie
Roseline Mgbodichinma is a Nigerian writer and law graduate who is passionate about documenting women’s stories. She is an alumnus of the Library of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD) West African Writers Residency programme. Her writing has been published in Isele, The Willowherb Review, Agbowo, SprinNG, Xylom and elsewhere.
Roseline’s chapbook, “A Body In Spice,” explores history, memory, emotion and place through the lens of spices. “During my residency at LOATAD, I visited the Aburi Botanical Gardens and saw a nutmeg tree for the first time. The tour guide spoke to us about the tree—how it pollinates and its history. It felt like my mind opened, and I went into a deep dive into spices: how they are grown, their histories, and what they have meant to people, particularly women,” Roseline told me.
“I left the residency knowing this was something I needed to explore and write about. So when the opportunity came to write this chapbook, I made a list of spices, did my research, spoke to my mother, friends, anyone I know who could tell me about spice and then I wrote poems based on what I had learned”, she said.
Roseline believes it is a beautiful time to be an African poet because her work, in the company of other African voices, will be useful in exemplifying the power of language to capture feeling. “I use flavour as an entry point to speak unashamedly about desire, grief, womanhood, bodies, spirituality, and more. These themes intertwine throughout the collection, showing how spices carry not just taste, but also stories and emotion,” she added.
Rahma Jimoh
Rahma Jimoh
Rahma O. Jimoh is a poet, storyteller and journalist whose works have appeared in several publications, home and abroad. She is a fellow of the 2025 World Writes Multilingual Creative Exchange Workshop. She was a 2023 fellow in the Undertow Young Writers Development Program, a winner of the 2022 Lagos-London Poetry Competition and a 2021 Hues Foundation Scholar.
Rahma’s chapbook, “Ashes,” explores social and political issues, especially issues concerning Nigeria and Nigerians. “There wasn’t a specific moment or experience that sparked the whole collection, but some of the poems like Ashes, Ninety Nine, Consequence and Hide & Seek were sparked by specific events and experiences,” Rahma said.
APBF is a big win for Rahma, and she hopes that “like other African voices before me which I highly respect like Safia Elhillo, Ladan Osman, Gbenga Adesina, Rasak Malik Gbolahan and others, my poems, with their distinct voices, exploring similar themes of country, home, war, political instability, add to the long body of African literature and contemporary literature”.
Hauwa Saleh Abubakar
Hauwa Saleh Abubakar
Hauwa Saleh Abubakar is a poet, writer, and journalist based in Kaduna, Nigeria. Her works have appeared in The Weight of Years: An Afroanthology of Creative Nonfiction, Ake Review, Agbowo Magazine, Lolwe and more. She is also the author of How to Practise Forgetting, a poetry collection that explores the world through the body, on Okada Books.
Hauwa’s chapbook, “Undone,” is a collection of poems that explores the grief of losing a loved one. “I suffered a loss, and as a writer and poet, the only way I make sense of the world is through poetry,” Hauwa explained. The book’s main theme is grief, but it also examines similar themes like longing, loss and love.
Hauwa believes that “loss is present wherever we are,” and her book delves into what it means to be human in the face of loss. She thinks that poetry has always been a part of who we are as Africans and aims to make people feel “something” with her writing.
