The nominees for the Oyo State edition of the 2026 The Future Awards Africa Independent Prize for Literature (TFAAi) have been announced, with four writers making the list:
- Rasaq Malik Gbolahan
- Oluwabukola Atanda Abdulrafiu
- Oladosu Michael Emerald
- Makinde Olubusayo Aderonke
The nominees were announced on Wednesday as part of the inaugural The Future Awards Africa Independent (TFAAi), a state-level expansion of The Future Awards Africa. Oyo State is one of four pilot states participating in the first edition, alongside Abia, Kano and Rivers.
The Future Awards Africa Independent was launched this year to extend the reach of the flagship awards beyond the national stage by recognising exceptional young people at the state level. The initiative maintains the Future Awards brand while focusing on grassroots innovators, creatives and community leaders whose work is transforming their local communities.
About The Nominees
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan is a Nigerian poet, performer, translator, essayist, and an emerging DH scholar. The founding Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó, he is also a cofounder of Àtélẹwó, the first digital journal devoted to publishing literary work written in the Yorùbá language. He is the author of the poetry chapbooks No Home In This Land, selected for Chapbook Box edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani, and The Other Names of Grief, published by Konya Shamsrumi.
His work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, African American Review, Beloit, Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, LitHub, Michigan Quarterly Review, Minnesota Review, New Orleans Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Rattle, Salt Hill, Spillway, Stand, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.
Oluwabukola Atanda Abdulrafiu is an emerging poet from Ilorin, Kwara State. In 2025, he won the fifth anniversary edition of the ÀTẸ́LẸWỌ́ Prize for Yorùbá Literature for his poetry manuscript, Oríloníṣe, receiving the competition’s ₦1 million grand prize. His winning manuscript was selected from 21 entries submitted across Nigeria and the diaspora. Abdulrafiu studied Yorùbá and English at the Kwara State College of Education, where he served as president of the Yorùbá Language Students’ Association in 2024.
Oladosu Michael Emerald is a writer, artist, and actor. He is the author of Every Little Thing That Moves and is an art editor at Surging Tide magazine and an editor at The MAAR Review. Emerald is also an instructor at The Arnheim Art Gallery and YAAH. He is the winner of the Off the Limit Art Contest (2024), Sprinng Poetry Contest (2024), GPC Neurodivergent Contest (2025), and Sine Qua Non Inaugural Poetry Prize (2025). His works have been published or are forthcoming in Chestnut Review, FIYAH, Temz Review, and elsewhere.
Makinde Olubusayo Aderonke is the founder of The Bookaholic Club, a literary community established in Ibadan to promote reading culture through book discussions, author engagements, and community events. An environmentalist and content creator, she launched the club in January 2024 after relocating from Lagos, where she had been an active member of book clubs, with the aim of building a vibrant reading community in Oyo State. Since then, The Bookaholic Club has grown into one of Ibadan’s notable literary communities, hosting regular meetups and conversations around African literature.
Congratulations to all nominees!
