Poet, lawyer and activist Ogaga Ifowodo won the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature on Friday, October 9, taking home $100,000 for his poetry collection *Why Does God Need a Gun?*, published by Masobe Books.

Brittle Paper reports the winner was announced at NLNG's Grand Award Night in Lagos, with the collection chosen from 223 entries.

Vanguard describes a hall at Eko Hotels and Suites filled with guests in heritage-inspired outfits under the theme "Heritage," where Ifowodo received the award from NLNG MD/CEO Adeleye Falade and Advisory Board chair Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.

The collection's spine is the title poem, "From the Forest of a Million Demons (Leah Sharibu Lifts the Veil)," which Brittle Paper says imagines the captivity of Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi schoolgirl abducted by insurgents in 2018. Adimora-Ezeigbo described the book, as quoted by LightRay!

Media and reported by Brittle Paper, as a sensitive portrayal of religious and political violence told through the voice of an imagined victim.

Speaking in Lagos on Sunday, Ifowodo told the News Agency of Nigeria, via Peoples Gazette, that his poetry seeks to preserve the stories of terrorism victims and challenge attempts by their captors to erase their identities.

The win capped a three-stage race. Brittle Paper recounts that eleven collections made the longlist in July, before the August shortlist narrowed to Ifowodo, James Ngwu Eze for *Unbind Me Now*, and Tares Oburumu for *Flora's Love Colony*.

There was history in the matchup: according to BusinessDay as cited by Brittle Paper, Ifowodo had also been a finalist in 2017.

Vanguard notes the prize has rotated among prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature since 2004, and that Ifowodo's victory came four years after Romeo Oriogun won the 2022 poetry edition with *Nomad*.

In Brittle Paper's September interview with the three finalists, Ifowodo argued that the Nigerian writer must "stand against the normalisation of violence," warning that societies can "unconsciously slip back into the jungle" when violence becomes ordinary.

He also insisted urgency does not excuse weak craft: "The medium saves it."

Asked by LEADERSHIP what he will do with $100,000, Ifowodo answered with humour about paying rent and buying petrol at ₦1,400 per litre, then borrowed a line from Ben Okri's Booker Prize response about buying a few more pencils.

The paper reports he plans to establish a poetry prize at his alma mater, Federal Government College, Warri, where he wrote his first poem as a fourth-year student and won joint first prize.

The night also produced other firsts: Vanguard reports the inaugural $20,000 Nigeria Prize for Creative Arts went jointly to Peter Oghenetega Oke for *Beyond Tarkwa Bay* and Feranmi Abiola for *Mara Mania*, chosen from 98 submissions.

Fans can also follow the shortlist aftermath elsewhere: The Bookseller reported from Cheltenham that Grace Walker's "standout" debut won the 2026 New Adult Book Prize, while Penguin Random House announced The Center for Fiction's 2026 First Novel Prize shortlist — a seven-title list judged by R. O. Kwon, Kiese Laymon, Jordy Rosenberg and Danzy Senna — with the winner announced in New York on December 8 and shortlisted authors reading at the First Novel Fête on December 4.