Nigerian poet Taiwo Hassan has been shortlisted for the 2026 Poetry Wales Award, joining 12 other poets selected from more than 600 entrants worldwide.
Hassan was recognised for his poem, ‘conversations with my mother on the prayer mat,’ which earned a place on the 13-poet shortlist chosen by this year’s judge, Bethany Handley.
A writer of Yorùbá descent, a poet and a vocalist, Taiwo Hassan is a 4x Best Of The Net Nominee; his poems have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, trampset, Lucent Dreaming, The Shore, and several other places. His first chapbook, Birds Don’t Fly For Pleasure, was published by River Glass Books.
The Poetry Wales Award is an annual single-poem competition open to poets from around the world. This year, over 1,600 poems were submitted, with the first prize sponsored by Literature Wales in the form of a stay at Tŷ Newydd writing centre.
The three awarded poets will be announced at the online awarding ceremony later in the summer.
Congratulations, Taiwo Hassan!
