Nigerian-born novelist Afabwaje Kurian and Nigerian poet Okwudili Nebeolisa have been shortlisted for the 2025 Zora Awards, one of the most prestigious honors recognizing Black literary achievement in the United States.
Kurian is a finalist in the Debut Fiction category for her novel Before the Mango Ripens (Dzanc Books), while Nebeolisa’s poetry collection Terminal Maladies (Autumn House Press) has earned him a place on the Poetry shortlist.
The Zora Awards, formerly known as the Legacy Awards, are presented annually by the Hurston/Wright Foundation to honor published works by Black writers across the globe in Fiction, Debut Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. This year’s ceremony will be held on October 17, 2025, at the Westin Washington, DC Downtown.
The rebranded Zora Awards commemorate the foundation’s 35th anniversary and feature notable changes, including a $20,000 cash prize for Debut Fiction winners and custom-designed statues by artist Rebecca Richardson for each category. Nearly 200 books were submitted this year, judged by award-winning Black authors on the basis of artistic merit and literary contribution.
About The Finalists
Afabwaje Kurian is the author of the novel Before The Mango Ripens, which has been shortlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Callaloo, Crazyhorse, The Bare Life Review, and Joyland Magazine. She’s taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, for the International Writing Program, and for The Writer’s Center. Born in Jos, Nigeria, and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland and in Ohio, Afabwaje now divides her time between Washington, DC and the Midwest.
Okwudili Nebeolisa, born in Kaduna, Nigeria, is the author of Terminal Maladies (Autumn House Press, 2024), which won the 2023 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards for Best Gay Poetry and the Zora Award.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Provost Fellow and winner of the Prairie Lights Prize for Fiction, Nebeolisa’s work spans poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, appearing in leading journals such as POETRY, The Cincinnati Review, The New England Review, Sewanee Review, and Evergreen Review. He is currently pursuing an MFA in fiction at the University of Minnesota, where he received the Gesell Award for Excellence in Poetry, and serves as a poetry editor at Post Road Magazine.
Congratulations, Afabwaje Kurian and Okwudili Nebeolisa!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
