Poets in Nigeria have announced the shortlist of 10 poems for the 2018 edition of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize.

Entries were opened for submissions on January 15.

The shortlisted poems are:

Words My Mother Told Me by Oyekunle Peter (Federal University of Technology, Akure),

Red by Deborah Selemon (University of Ibadan, Ibadan)

COLOURS by Hauwa Abubakar (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria)

Deep Dreams by Iberiyenari Tamunofiri (Niger Delta University Wilberforce Island, Yenagoa)

Here, Nowhere by Kester Onyemaechi (University of Benin, Ugbowo)

This Agony Mother Feels by Idowu Odeyemi (Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti);

Thunder by Ubi Ofem (Cross River University of Technology, Calabar)

Yet Another Head by Amagwula Comfort (University of Lagos, Lagos)

Mother Dearest by Okoye Oguguo (Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu)

Two Sides Of Hakeem by Ikeobi Chukwubuokem (University of Agriculture, Abeokuta).

Members of the judging panel chaired by Ismail Bala include Hulya Yilmaz, Soji Cole, Kukogoho  Samson and Saka Aliyu.

According to Mr. Bala, generously offered in the shortlisted entries are poems which, like their writers, are diverse in their style as they are in their preoccupations with different and differing topics and concerns.

“And it is my sincere hope that such awareness, interest and appreciation would continue to flourish and prosper even after graduation of the student-writers,” he noted

Instituted in 2016 to stimulate creativity and promote literary excellence amongst Nigerian undergraduates, the award has had two grand prizewinners – Noah Oladele, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (2016) and Bakre Fadil Adedamola, University of Ibadan (2017).

The prizewinners of this current edition will be announced at the NSPP Awards slated for May 24, 2018 at Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.