Nigerian writer Ogunrinde earns global recognition in 2025 Live Canon Poetry Prize

Nigerian journalist and writer Oyelola Ogunrinde has been longlisted for the 2025 Live Canon International Poetry Competition, a prestigious UK-based literary award that has celebrated poetic excellence for over a decade.

The competition, known for its rigorous judging process and emphasis on technical mastery, emotional resonance, and originality, received thousands of entries from poets across the world this year.

Being longlisted, organisers noted, is a mark of exceptional literary quality and creative distinction.

The overall winner, Lauren Thomas, clinched the top spot with her poem “The Beekeeper of Heligan.”

The announcement was made during an online ceremony on Thursday, 23rd October 2025, by guest judge Nina Murray, an acclaimed poet and translator known for her evocative and thought-provoking works.

Murray commended the high calibre of submissions and the thematic diversity reflected in the finalists’ poems, noting that the entries captured a wide spectrum of human emotion, nature, and modern experience.

Ogunrinde’s longlisted poem, titled “Laughter,” stands among an impressive selection of works featured in the 2025 Live Canon Anthology, available via Live Canon’s official website.

Past winners of the competition include Inua Ellams, the Nigerian-British poet who took home the prize in 2014.

This year’s shortlist featured works such as “The Beekeeper of Heligan” by Lauren Thomas, “Rewilding at the End of the World” by Jen Feroze, “Pheasant Eggs” by Miles Gibson, and “The Gleaners” by Vasiliki Albedo, among others.

Ogunrinde’s recognition adds to the growing list of Nigerian writers making waves on the global literary stage, reinforcing the country’s vibrant contribution to contemporary poetry.

Shortlist

1. Blow — Nicky Kippax

2. Bycatch — Caroline Smith

3. E = mc² — Kate Fenwick

4. How Fungi Unmake and Remake the World and It’s Holy — Anne Cooper

5. Pheasant Eggs — Miles Gibson

6. Rewilding at the End of the World — Jen Feroze

7. The Beekeeper of Heligan — Lauren Thomas

8. The Cows on Testing Day — Ilse Pedler

9. The Final Foley Session: Climate Emergency — Jane Thomas

10. The Gleaners — Vasiliki Albedo

11. The Old People’s Home at the End of the World — Anna Bowles

12. To Mr Edwards (Physics) — Oenone Thomas

13. We Never Found the River — Laura Theis

Longlist

1. A Boy Scout Memory — Matthew McDermott

2. Angels Have Blue Feet — Lesley Saunders

3. Ascension Day — Martin Yates

4. Asclepius — Bex Hainsworth

5. Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously — Brett van Toen

6. Dinger, Short for Schrödinger — Sharon Black

7. Dogwhelk — Claire Barnes

8. Don’t Love Me — Mehmet Izbudak

9. Even in Pristina We Get Ready for Winter — Lesley Sharpe

10. Family Matters — Julia Webb

11. Gaia Returns to Work After Maternity Leave — Karan Chambers

12. How to Ferment Your Past — Denise O’Hagan

13. I Am a Nothing-Doer — Katie Griffiths

14. If I’m Only a Handbag, You Might Be One Too — Aileen La Tourette

15. Laughter — Oyelola Ogunrinde

16. Leicester Car Parks — Julie Runacres

17. Love Map – A Zuihitsu — Vanessa Lampert

18. Mount Famine — Mark Totterdell

19. My Dad Wins the Charles Lindbergh Award for Driving to East Midlands Airport So Early the Terminal Has Yet to Be Built — Jeanette Burton

20. Oscar’s Boat — Mary Mulholland

21. Pitching God — Deborah Finding

22. Playing Among Ruins — David Clark

23. Self Portrait as All the Saints — Sue Burge

24. Slow — Ruth Sharman

25. Special Clinic — Lydia Kennaway

26. The Bowling Action of Muttiah Muralitharan — Sarah Gibbons

27. The Disaster Planner Enjoys Dessert — Suzanna Fitzpatrick

28. The Resurrection of the Tasmanian Tiger — David Underdown

29. The Shark God — Paul Terence Carney

30. The Story Is Rain — Jeff Bien

31. The Underside of Pigeons — Amelia Dowler

32. This Cuckoo from Harappa — Rishika Williams

33. Threads — Karis Williamson

34. To a Magnolia — Oliver Dixon

35. Towards the End — Penny Sharman

36. When a Sindhi Woman Dies, So Does a Book — Sapna Bhavnani

37. Wild Carrot Wild Mustard — Ger Duffy

38. Wrecked — Lesley Curwen