Longlisted Poem: “I Make a Mirror of This River”
Taofeek “Aswagaawy” Ayeyemi is a Nigerian lawyer, writer and author of the chapbooks Tongueless Secrets (Ethel Press, 2021) and the collection Aubade at Night or Serenade in the Morning (FlowerSong Press, 2021). A BotN and Pushcart Prize nominee, his works have appeared in Lucent Dreaming, Up-the-Staircase Quarterly, FERAL, Banyan Review, Conscio, Agbowó, and elsewhere. He won the 2021 Loft Books Flash Fiction Competition, and came second place in the 2025 Octofest Poetry Contest, the 2021 Porter House Review Poetry Contest, and the 2016 Christopher Okigbo Poetry Prize. He is @Aswagaawy on X.