Adedayo Agarau

Adedayo Agarau (born 1994) is a Nigerian poet whose work explores themes of ritual violence, memory, and African spiritualism. He is the author of the full-length poetry collection The Years of Blood (Fordham University Press, 2025), which won the Poetic Justice Institute Editor's Prize for BIPOC Writers. Agarau is the Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó Magazine, a journal dedicated to African literature and art, and serves as Poetry Reviews Editor for The Rumpus.

As a Nigerian poet working at the intersection of tradition and contemporary experience, Agarau's poetry has appeared in publications including Poetry Magazine, Guernica, World Literature Today, and Iowa Review. In 2024, he won the C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize for his poem "Halloween, Iowa."

Beyond his creative work, Agarau is active in building literary communities across Africa. He founded The Arole Agarawu International Poetry Prize for African Writers and co-founded Poetry Sango-Ota, a mentoring platform for emerging Nigerian poets. He curated Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry (2020), a landmark collection showcasing the work of Nigerian poets, and is a member of the UnSerious Collective.

Early life and education Agarau was born in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1994. He earned his Higher National Diploma in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo in 2019. He subsequently served as a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University from 2023 to 2025. The collection addresses ritual killings and child abductions in Nigeria, particularly in Ibadan, drawing on Yoruba cosmology and folklore. The work won the 2023-24 Poetic Justice Institute Editor's Prize for BIPOC Writers and was listed among the most anticipated poetry collections of 2025 by Isele Magazine, The Modaculture, and Open Country Magazine.

His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including Poetry Magazine, Guernica, World Literature Today, Iowa Review, Poet Lore, and Poetry Society of America.

In 2020, Agarau curated and edited Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry, a significant collection that documents the diverse voices and styles of contemporary Nigerian poets including Dami Ajayi, JK Anowe, Pelumi Salako, Jide Badmus, Nome Patrick, amongst many others. The anthology has been recognized as an important contribution to Nigerian and African literary scholarship.

Community building and mentorship Agarau is a member of the UnSerious Collective, a fellowship program supporting emerging Nigerian writers.

He founded The Arole Agarawu International Poetry Prize for African Writers, an initiative aimed at recognizing and supporting African poets. The prize is named after his grandfather, Alhaji Arole Agarawu, an uncredited West African songwriter and composer, connecting contemporary African literary practice with musical and oral traditions. Winner, C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize (2024) for "Halloween, Iowa" Shortlisted, Wales International Poetry Prize (2024) Shortlisted, Brunel African Poetry Prize (2022) Stanley Award for International Research, University of Iowa (2022) Robert Hayden Fellowship (2022) Winner, Frontier Poetry Industry Prize, 3rd Place (2020) Longlist, Emerging Poet Prize, Palette Poetry (2020) First Runner-Up, SEVHAGE/Angya Poetry Prize (2019) Shortlisted, Babishai Niwe Poetry Prize (2018) Winner, Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize (2017)