Read the 2024 Winning Poem by Iyanuoluwa Adenle selected by the inaugural judge for the prize, Othuke Umukoro

2025 Submission Guidelines

  1. The Prize is open to writers worldwide. Each entrant may submit ONE unpublished poem. Multiple submissions by the same writer are not permitted.

  2. Please do not submit any poem that has appeared in any form — including chapbooks, anthologies, full-length collections, social media, blogs, newsletters, or literary magazines.

  3. Submitted poems should not exceed 50 lines. (Epigraphs and the poem’s title are not counted as part of the line total.)

  4. Submissions must be anonymous. Do not include your name or any biographical information in the manuscript document.

    In the body of your email only, please include:

    • Name

    • Phone number

    • Email address

    • Country of residence

  5. Submit your poem as a PDF or Word (.doc/.docx) file attachment to: kofiawoonorpoetryprize@gmail.com
    Email Subject Line: Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize 2025

  6. Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines — or that are received after the deadline — will be automatically disqualified and not read.

  7. Close friends, relatives, and recent students of the judge are not eligible to submit.

  8. There is no entry fee.

  9. Administrators at Pepper Coast Mag will receive and collate all entries and forward them to the judge. The judge reads all work anonymously.

  10. The judge’s decision is final.

  11. The winner will receive $150 USD and publication in Pepper Coast Mag.

  12. Finalists will be announced in October 2025.
    The winner will be announced in November 2025.

For inquiries or clarifications, please email us.
Thank you — and we look forward to receiving your work.

Guest Judge

THE KOFI AWOONOR POETRY PRIZE — 2025

Submissions for the 2025 Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize will open from July 1 – August 8, 2025, closing at 11:59 PM (local time).

We are pleased to announce that Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe has been appointed as the judge for the 2025 edition of the prize.

Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe is a Nigerian poet. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the winner of the Indiana Review Poetry Prize 2025, American Literary Review Poetry Prize 2024, and Bloomsday Poetry Prize 2020. She was a finalist for the Porter House Review Prize and longlisted for the Disquiet Poetry Prize. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming on Indiana Review, American Literary Review, Chestnut Review, Brittle Paper and elsewhere. She is currently the 2025-2026 Hoffman-Halls Emerging Artist Fellow (HEAF) at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing.