Isabelle Baafi

Isabelle Baafi is an English writer and editor, noted for her poetry.

Her writing has appeared in various publications, including The Times Literary Supplement, The London Magazine, The Poetry Review, Oxford Poetry, and Magma Poetry. She is the reviews editor of Poetry London.

Background Baafi was born in London, England, She also earned a postgraduate degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford.

She was the winner of the 2019 Vincent Cooper Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, presented by the Oxford Brookes University.

Baafi's 2020 debut pamphlet, Ripe, won a Somerset Maugham Award and was the Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice for Spring 2021.

Baafi has served as a Ledbury poetry critic, an Obsidian Foundation Fellow, and a board member at Magma. In 2023, Baafi was the winner of the Winchester Poetry Prize (presented by the Winchester Poetry Festival held in Winchester) for her poem "The Path of Least Resilience".

Baafi's first poetry collection, Chaotic Good, published by Faber & Faber, won the 2025 Forward Prize for Best First Collection. It was also shortlisted for the 2025 T. S. Eliot Prize and selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for summer 2025.

Awards 2025: Forward Prize for Best First Collection, for Chaotic Good 2025: T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlisted), for Chaotic Good 2023: Winchester Poetry Prize for "The Path of Least Resilience" 2021: Somerset Maugham Award for Ripe 2021: Brunei International African Poetry Prize (shortlisted) 2020: Bridport Prize (shortlisted) 2019: Vincent Cooper Literary Prize 2019: Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition (shortlisted)

Publications Ripe (Ignition Press, 2020) Chaotic Good (Faber and Faber, 2025, )