Chiwenite Onyekwelu, a Nigerian poet and pharmacist, has been announced as the winner of the first-ever ‘After the End’ Poetry Competition for his poems, On Memory and Forgetting and Time/Our Time.
Selected by a distinguished judging panel comprising poet Jenny Mitchell, literary agent Salma Begum, Dr. Michael Flexer from the University of Exeter, Professor Patricia Kingori, and Professor Laura Salisbury, Chiwenite Onyekwelu’s work emerged from 270 entries spanning 13 countries.
His winning pieces, On Memory and Forgetting and Time/Our Time, captivated the judges with their poignant exploration of endings and the passage of time. On Memory and Forgetting offers a tender reflection on his father’s memories of the Biafra war, while Time/Our Time delves into the environmental devastation caused by oil spills in the Niger Delta.
The competition also recognized the talents of Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi and Rhiya Pau, who were named runners-up. Bobi’s series of poems The Final Words of a Stage-IV Cancer Patient to Cancer Cells, A New Era, and A Spade Isn’t Just A Spade intricately weave themes of mortality and cultural proverbs. Pau’s entries, Enough and Entropy, delve into intergenerational experiences, with Enough previously winning the Platinum Poetry Prize in the 2021 Creative Future Writers’ Award.
Professor Laura Salisbury, co-leader of the project at the University of Exeter, praised the winning submissions stating:
“The quality of entries was very high but there was unanimity amongst the judges. The winning entries were conceptually sophisticated and emotionally resonant and have really helped to inform our thinking about the project.”
A Nigerian poet and pharmacist, Chiwenite Onyekwelu has been widely published in journals such as Hudson Review, Rattle, Cincinnati Review, and Adroit. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Nnamdi Azikiwe University and was a finalist for the Writivism Poetry Prize and the Alpine Fellowship Prize for Poetry. In 2023, he won the Hudson Review’s Frederick Morgan Poetry Prize.
Initiated as part of a research project co-led by Professor Patricia Kingori at Oxford Population Health’s Ethox Centre, the ‘After the End’ Competition invites poets to examine who determines the conclusion of significant global events. The project reflects on the aftermath of crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigates how endings influence societal inequalities.
Congratulations to Chiwenite Onyekwelu and all the winners on this great win!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
