{"id":25379,"date":"2026-06-23T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/?post_type=tribe_events&#038;p=25379"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:51:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:51:47","slug":"sillerman-first-book-prize-for-african-poetry","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/event\/sillerman-first-book-prize-for-african-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The<strong> Sillerman Prize<\/strong> is awarded annually, with submissions open between <strong>15 September to 1 December<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Prize:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry is awarded annually to an African poet <strong>who has not yet published a collection of poetry<\/strong>. The winner receives <strong>USD $1000<\/strong> and <strong>book publication<\/strong> through the University of Nebraska Press.<\/p>\n<p>The Sillerman Editorial Team, including Kwame Dawes, Chris Abani, Matthew Shenoda, John Keene, Gabeba Baderoon, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Aracelis Girmay, and Mahtem Shiferraw will judge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eligibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets will only accept <strong>\u201cfirst book\u201d<\/strong> submissions from African writers who have not published a book-length poetry collection. <strong>This includes self-published books<\/strong> if they were sold online, in stores, or at readings. Writers who have edited and published an anthology or a similar collection of other writers\u2019 work remain eligible.<\/p>\n<p>An <strong>\u201cAfrican writer\u201d<\/strong> is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, who is a national or resident of an African country, or whose parents are African.<\/p>\n<p>Only poetry submissions in <strong>English<\/strong> can be considered. Work translated from another language to English is accepted, but a percentage of the prize will be awarded to the translator.<\/p>\n<p>No past or present paid employees of the University of Nebraska Press, Akashic Books, or Amalion Press, or current faculty, students, or employees at Brown University, are eligible for the prizes.<\/p>\n<p>Poetry manuscripts should be <strong>at least 50 pages long<\/strong>. The author\u2019s name should not appear on the manuscript. Eligible writers may submit more than one manuscript.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Entry Fee:<\/strong> No entry fee is required to submit to the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Please direct questions regarding submissions to <a href=\"mailto:apbf@brown.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">apbf@brown.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/africanpoetrybf.brown.edu\/contest-prizes\/sillerman-prize-for-african-poetry-winners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for more information.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h4>Submission deadline: 1 December 2026<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry is awarded annually to an African poet who has not yet published a collection of poetry. The winner receives USD $1000 and book publication through the University of Nebraska Press. Submissions are open between 15 September to 1 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24827,"template":"","meta":{"_en_post_content":"","_en_post_name":"","_en_post_excerpt":"","_en_post_title":"","_af_post_content":"","_af_post_name":"","_af_post_excerpt":"","_af_post_title":"","edit_language":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[53,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-25379","1":"tribe_events","2":"type-tribe_events","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"tribe_events_cat-competitions","7":"tribe_events_cat-publications","8":"cat_competitions","9":"cat_publications","10":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/25379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/25379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25381,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/25379\/revisions\/25381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25379"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgf.org.za\/af\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=25379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}