Two Nigerian poets, Tolu Oloruntoba and Othuke Umukoro, have been named finalists for the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, alongside Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison.

Oloruntoba is shortlisted for Unravel, published by McClelland & Stewart, while Umukoro is recognised for Fenestration, published jointly by The University Press of SHSU and Nigeria’s Masobe Books. Goodison is a finalist for The Inferno.

The three writers bring Nigerian and Caribbean perspectives to a prize named for Saint Lucian Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. They are among 15 finalists selected by poet and translator Rosanna Warren from an international field of poets whose books were published in 2025.

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The shortlist also includes Mona Arshi, John F. Deane, Karen Downs-Barton, Robin Durnford, Ye Hui, Evan Jones, Esther Lin, Theresa Munoz, Thomas McCarthy, Bernard O’Donoghue, Tom Paulin and Stav Poleg.

Oloruntoba's second collection

For Oloruntoba, the nomination comes five years after his debut collection, The Junta of Happenstance, won the Griffin Poetry Prize.

His second collection, Unravel, extends the concerns that have marked his work, particularly the body, migration and displacement. Oloruntoba trained as a physician before moving from Nigeria to Canada, and medical language and imagery have become part of his poetic vocabulary.

The Griffin win established him as one of the Nigerian poets to gain significant international recognition in recent years. His Walcott nomination now places his latest work in contention for another major international poetry prize.

Umukoro's Fenestration

Umukoro is shortlisted for Fenestration, a collection whose title takes its name from the architectural term for the arrangement of windows and other openings in a building.

The idea provides a framework for poems concerned with perspective, visibility and interior life, moving between what is seen from the outside and experiences that remain private.

The book's publication history is also notable. It was published by Masobe Books in Nigeria in partnership with The University Press of SHSU in the United States, giving the collection two publishing bases as it enters an international prize.

For Nigerian poetry, that route reflects a wider movement in which local publishers are increasingly involved in bringing contemporary Nigerian writing to readers beyond the country.

Goodison brings a different but related literary geography to the shortlist.

A major figure in Jamaican literature, she has published poetry, fiction and memoir and served as Jamaica's Poet Laureate. Her work has frequently engaged with memory, history, place and the lives of ordinary people.

Her inclusion alongside Oloruntoba and Umukoro gives the shortlist a notable Nigeria-Caribbean thread. It also places contemporary African and Caribbean poetry within a prize carrying the name of Walcott, whose own work crossed geographical and literary boundaries between the Caribbean, Europe and North America.

Goodison is the only Jamaican finalist on this year's list, while Oloruntoba and Umukoro are the shortlist's two Nigerian poets.

The two Nigerian nominations continue the country's recent presence in the prize.

Saddiq Dzukogi won the Walcott Prize in 2021 for Your Crib, My Qibla. In 2025, Theresa Lola shared the prize with Irish poet Mary O'Malley for Ceremony for the Nameless.

Oloruntoba's earlier Griffin victory and Umukoro's current nomination add to a growing record of Nigerian poets appearing in major international poetry awards, while their books also demonstrate the range of publishing routes now available to Nigerian writers.

The Walcott Prize was established in 2019 in honour of Derek Walcott. It is open to a living poet who is not a US citizen, with books published anywhere in the world eligible provided they are written in English or translated into English. The winner receives $2,000.

The 2026 winner will be announced later this year.

For Oloruntoba and Umukoro, the result will determine whether Nigeria adds another Walcott winner to its recent record. For Goodison, the nomination adds another international recognition to a career that has made Jamaican poetry part of the wider conversation around contemporary literature from the Caribbean.