Chibụìhè Obi Achịmbá was declared the winner of the Frontier Poetry Award 2021 on December 14, 2021.
The Frontier Poetry Award is an award from US-based Frontier Poetry that shines a light on some of the best poetry in the world. It awards one poem the $3000 prize—selected by a panel of judges representing two stellar independent presses: Michael Wiegers of Copper Canyon Press and Jenny Molberg of Pleiades Press.
The winner for 2021 is Chibuihe Obi Achimba for a sonnet: a slaughter field which will be published on January 11, 2022.
Chibuihe Obi Achimba grew up in Southeastern Nigeria. He is a poet, essayist, LGBTQ+ activist, and was the 2019 Harvard University Scholar-at-Risk fellow and a visiting poet in the Department of English. His writings have been published or featured in The New York Times, Guernica Magazine, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and served as the 2020 Summer Visiting Artist at the Oregon Institute for Creative Research. He is currently an MFA student at Brown University where he is working on a poetry collection and a memoir.
On the revelation of the award Achịmbá said, “I’ve been named the winner of the 2021 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets. Oh my fucking goodness!!!I was so broke last summer I almost didn’t enter for this prize until Ada Kpakpando paid and submitted it on my behalf. 😭”
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