Announcing JAY Lit’s Nominees for 2027 Best of the Net

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It’s that time of the year when Sundress Publications accepts nominations for its annual Best of the Net anthology. The Journal of African Youth Literature (JAY Lit) is sending in nominations from works we published within the period in review—July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Issues 10 and 11 of JAY Lit, which were released in December 2025 and June 2026, respectively, fall into this bracket.

Our nominees for the 2027 Best of the Net are a strong mix of poetry prose, and visual art from creators across Africa. The nominees are as follows:

The Best of the Net is an awards-based anthology designed to grant a platform to a diverse and growing collection of writers and publishers who are building an online literary landscape that seeks to break free of traditional publishing. It was created by Sundress Publications to bring greater respect to the continually expanding world of exceptional digital publishing. The project was started in 2006, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Sundress Publications‘ founding editor. It aims to gather communities of online literary magazines, journals, and individuals that do the work of creating our digital literary landscape, an effort in decentering the literary canon as well as promoting and amplifying voices that are imperative to good literature, responsible culture, and the understanding of today’s social climate. 

Congratulations to all our nominees! We wish them the best of luck as Sundress Publications gets down to the business of picking the 2027 winners for the Best of the Net anthology.

Gloria Ameh, nominated for “Golgotha” (Poetry, Issue 11)
Star Zahra, nominated for “Damp Lines and Canvas” (Poetry, Issue 11)
Reme Abel Nakruah Nawoe, nominated for “Voice of a Barren Land” (Poetry, Issue 11)
Victoria Kerubo, nominated for “Green River” (Poetry, Issue 12)
Majekodunmi O. Ebhohon, nominated for “The Double Funeral” (Poetry, Issue 12)
Chidera Echedom, nominated for “Before Every Rain was Drought” (Poetry, Issue 12)
Fiske Nyirongo, nominated for “The One Who Works in the Garden” (Short Story, Issue 11)
Adebayo Ibraheem nominated for “Spills” (Short Story, Issue 12)
Naomi Nduta Waweru, nominated for “Poems Holding My Hand” (Personal Essay, Issue 11)
Taslimah Woli, nominated for “The Architecture of Promises” (Photo Essay, Issue 11)
Natasha Devalia, nominated for “Tusks” (Visual Art, Issue 12)
Ogo Onyeji, nominated for “Solace” (Visual Art, Issue 12)

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