Longlisted Poem: “A Brief History of Love”
Chukwu Emmanuel Chibuzo is a medical student at the University of Calabar, where he navigates the intersection of healing and art. His writing has been recognized in several literary competitions, including shortlists for the Benue Literary Festival (2018) and the Kalahari Review Igby Prize for Nonfiction (2019). He was also a poetry finalist in the Kreative Diadem Contest (2020). His poems and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Kalahari Review, Libettero Magazine, Eboquills, and AfriWriters Magazine. Working between the precision of medicine and the openness of poetry, Emmanuel writes toward the difficult questions of family, country, violence, tenderness, and survival. He is interested in how the body holds memory and how language can make space for what is rarely spoken aloud.