Every year, Nigerian writers release books and projects that contribute meaningfully to world literature and continue to cement Nigeria’s place as a home of fresh and outstanding voices. Poets, in particular, have remained a vital part of this creative movement, using their work to explore identity, history, and the rhythms of everyday life.
From single poems, chapbooks to collections, they capture the complexity of the Nigerian experience while connecting to universal themes that resonate far beyond borders. This year was no different. Nigerian poets, mostly abroad, released bodies of work that reflect their personal and collective experiences.
Here is a list of some Nigerian poetry projects released this year.
Adedayo Agarau: The Years of Blood
The Years of Blood is Adedayo Agarau’s debut poetry collection, published by Fordham University Press. You can order a copy here.
Saddiq Dzukogi: Bakandamiya
Bakandamiya is Saddiq Dzukogi’s second book. His first book, Your Crib, My Qibla, was critically acclaimed. Bakandamiya is published by the University of Nebraska Press. You can order a copy here.
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto: The Naming
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Oxford Poetry, Massachusetts Review, Frontier, Palette, The Common, Southword Magazine, Poet Lore, Colorado Review, Mud Season Review, Notre Dame, Anmly, The Republic, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Ruminate and elsewhere. The Naming is published by the University of Nebraska Press. You can order a copy here.
Hussain Ahmed: Cross Road Mirror
Hussein Ahmed‘s Crossroad Mirror is published by Northwestern University Press. You can order a copy here. Crossroad Mirror is Hussein’s third poetry collection.
DM Aderibigbe: 82nd Division
D.M. Aderibigbe is the author of How the End First Showed, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry. He has received fellowships and scholarships from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the James Merrill House, Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Centre, Art Omi/Ledig House, Ucross Foundation, Jentel Foundation, and Boston University. 82nd Division is his latest poetry collection. You can order a copy here.
Gbenga Adesina: Death Does Not End at the Sea
Gbenga Adesina‘s Death Does Not End at the Sea won the 2024 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Award and was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Awards for Poetry. You can order a copy here.
Othuke Umukoro: Fenestration (2025)
Othuke Umukoro‘s Fenestration won the 2024 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, selected by Dianna Suiss. You can order a copy here.
Chisom Okafor: Winged Witnesses
Chisom Okafor’s Winged Witnesses is published by the University of Nebraska. You can order a copy here.
Itiola Jones: Blood Mercy
Itiola Jones‘ Bloodmercy was chosen by Nicole Sealey as the winner of the 2025 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. You can order a copy here.
Tolu Oloruntoba: Unravel
Tolu Oloruntoba is the author of two previous collections of poetry, The Junta of Happenstance, winner of the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and Governor General’s Literary Award, and Each One a Furnace, a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize finalist.
You can order a copy of Unravel here.
Jide Salawu: Contraband Bodies
Jide Salawu is a scholar, and author of the Preface for Leaving Homeland, published by the African Poetry Book Fund. Contrand Bodies is published by NeWest Press. You can order a copy here.
Jumoke Verissimo: Circumtrauma
Jmuoke Verissimo is a poet and novelist living in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of two well-recognised collections: I Am Memory and The Birth of Illusion, both published in Nigeria and nominated for different awards, including the Nigerian Prize for Literature. Her novel, A Small Silence, received critical acclaim and was nominated for several awards, including the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. It won the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize.
You can order a copy of Circumtrauma here.
Rasaq Malik: The Origin of Wounds
Rasaq Malik is the winner of the 2024 Anhinga Prize for Poetry for his manuscript, The Origin of Wounds, selected by Kaveh Bassiri and forthcoming in December 2025.,
Ifeoluwa Ayàndélé: My Father Paints His Dreams on My Body
Ifeoluwa Ayàndélé‘s collection, My Father Paints His Dreams on My Body, won the 2024 Moon City Poetry Award. His collection will be published this year.
Please know that the list might not cover all the poetry projects released or to be released this year. Are there other poetry projects that we might have missed? Please go ahead and share with us.
