Chii Ọganihu and Nyachiro Lydia Kasese have been shortlisted for the Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026, selected from 1,400 submissions by emerging poets worldwide.
This year’s judge, Bhanu Kapil, chose a shortlist of seven writers from a longlist of 50.
Launched in Summer 2022, Propel Magazine is a literary magazine featuring the work of poets who have yet to publish a first full-length collection of poetry, showcasing exciting new poetry at an impressively high standard and acting as a free and open resource for editors, readers, and curators alike.
Bhanu Kapil described the reading process, saying:
“I was deeply moved to read the poems that reached me: the fifty poems of the longlist, written or sent from many countries and many places and many times. In these poems, I found the roar of animals floating in the sky, the aftermath of many kinds. All the leftover parts of an entire life. I found the tenderness and loss and desire that circulate in moments of departure. In the seams between these poems, what arrived? Howls. Barks. Shouts. New silences.
Dear poets, thank you so much for sharing your poems. I can say that this was a deeply thoughtful process. Your poems were read by other poets, and then by me, at home. It was humbling. As I wrote those words, a goldfinch landed on the handle of the glass door facing the place where I am seated! Deep magic of being with your poems.”
The winner will be announced in mid-May 2026.
About the Shortlisted Poets
Chii Ọganihu was born in Enugu, Nigeria. A poet and fiction writer, her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Banshee, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere, and recently won an Editor’s Choice award at CRAFT Literary. Ọganihu’s writing has received support from Brooklyn Poets, the McCormack Writing Center, Seventh Wave, and others.
Nyachiro Lydia Kasese is a Tanzanian poet, writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, documentary filmmaker, and photographer. She is a storyteller at heart who believes in the power of storytelling to heal. Her literary works have appeared in spaces such as The African Poetry Book Fund, The Caine Prize’s Anthology, Jalada Africa, Lolwe, and Brittle Paper, to mention a few. She is co-founder of Asusa Creative Writers Initiative, an NGO based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and an Obsidian Foundation 2025 Alumni.
Congratulations, Chii Ọganihu and Nyachiro Lydia Kasese!
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