The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026 Announcement
We are delighted to announce the results of this year’s inaugural The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize, judged by Bhanu Kapil:
Winner
Tasneem Maher, ‘wa nu3eid (again and again and again)’
Runner Up
Rebecca Ferrier, ‘A Taste of Love’
Read the winning poem, full details of the shortlisted poets, and more about The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize, below:
wa nu3eid (again and again and again)
after Mashrou’ Leila / after Marwa Helal
Tasneem Maher
؟stay ever i will but marra kol you to back come i
yet not tree the on fig ripe first the as effervescent are you
thumbs my to way give to enough soft
future a like smell doesn’t it me tell yasmeen el shim
me change you letting consider i want you
maybe yet company own my of bored not i’m but
circularity good a has it 3ishra w 3ashra years 10 in
teeth my cut to love i else nothing if and it to
trouble in me gets always what language of irony the on
س on down pressing sins of row a mouth my you with
probably i’ll but proposition better a for you asking i’m
doubt i and wareed bl deep are you anyway you take
ward ya you of myself rid to trying in point a there’s
for fall could i doppelganger a twin gentler a have you if
self-aware i’m if thing bad a not it’s easily more
interchangeable are you 3asal ya loz ya fosto2 ya
less any you love i mean doesn’t other any as me to
shway ra2sini ta3i face that pull don’t
once for want i dizzy me make round me spin
think not and streetlights the of glitter the only see to
fleshy and damp underbelly your of
crown a you make to street the from flowers plucking am i
you make could i get you’ll offer best the likely it’s
earth this on have we long how knows who but dress a
hoping mostly i’m now right fasateen bala anyway
postpone and *year next to it make to
months few a least at by you to commitment my
manifesto revolution a as bright are we moment this in
again you leave i time the by forgotten be will which
؟what then me leaves never love your if and
إذا منحمل الشتي المصير يجي الربيع *
Tasneem Maher is a writer and researcher based in Edinburgh, where she is working on the poetics, politics, and affect of the Palestinian speculative. Her writing has appeared in Poetry Online, VIBE, and BAHR Magazine, among others. She supports the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and she calls on you to reject Zionism everywhere, in all its forms.
The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026 - Shortlist
Seven writers make the inaugural The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize shortlist
The inaugural prize received 1400 entries from emerging poets across the world. This year’s judge, Bhanu Kapil, selected the following shortlist of 7 writers from a longlist of 50 poets.
A note on the selections from our judge, Bhanu Kapil:
“I was deeply moved to read the poems that reached me: the fifty poems of the longlist, written or sent from many countries and many places and many times. In these poems, I found the roar of animals floating in the sky, aftermaths of many kinds. All the left-over parts of an entire life. I found the tenderness and loss and desire that circulates in moments of departure. In the seams between these poems, what arrived? Howls. Barks. Shouts. New silences.
Dear poets, thank you so much for sharing your poems. I can say that this was a deeply thoughtful process. Your poems were read by other poets, and then by me, at home. It was humbling. As I wrote those words, a goldfinch landed on the handle of the glass door facing the place where I am seated! Deep magic of being with your poems.”
The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026 shortlist
Chii Ọganihu
Elisávet Makridis
Nyachiro Lydia Kasese
Rebecca Ferrier
Simran Singh
Sneha Subramanian Kanta
Tasneem Maher
The Shortlisted Poets
Runner Up
Rebecca Ferrier is a teacher, author and poet. Her debut novel The Salt Bind was released in January 2026 (John Murray Press) and she is in the final year of a Creative Writing PhD at Northumbria University, having been awarded a fully-funded studentship. She was the recipient of the Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer in 2020 and has previously benefited from Creative Scotland funding. Her poetry has been published by New Statesman, Propel, Banshee, Under the Radar and Poetry Ireland Review.
Chii Ọganihu was born in Enugu, Nigeria. A poet and fiction writer, her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Banshee, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere; and recently won an Editor's Choice award at CRAFT Literary. Ọganihu's writing has received support from Brooklyn Poets, the McCormack Writing Center, Seventh Wave, and others.
Elisávet Makridis is a Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets nominated cross-disciplinary poet, educator, and Cornell University MFA graduate where she taught as an award-winning lecturer. Winner of Grist's 2025 ProForma Contest in Hybrid Writing, her work has been published in, or is forthcoming from, RHINO, Black Warrior Review, Poetry Northwest, Washington Square Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Indiana Review, amongst others. She is at work on a hybrid poetry collection, selected most recently as a semifinalist for the 2025 Black River Chapbook Contest (Black Lawrence Press).
Nyachiro Lydia Kasese is a Tanzanian poet, writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, documentary film maker and photographer. She is a storyteller at heart who believes in the power of storytelling to heal. Her literary works have appeared in spaces such as The African Poetry Book Fund, The Caine Prize’s Anthology, Jalada Africa, Lolwe, Brittle Paper to mention a few. She is co-founder of Asusa Creative Writers Initiative, an NGO based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and an Obsidian Foundation 2025 Alumni.
Simran Singh (he/they) is a writer and yoga teacher from London. Simran's work focuses on strange kinds of friendship, sacredness, and solidarity, especially within queer nightlife and across borders and languages. They're a 3-time Barbican Young Poet, have written for English Heritage, The Independent, the Barbican Gallery, Storycellar Mumbai and Sony Music x Anthems, and have performed for Daytimers, Raze Collective, London Queer Writers, Somerset House, The Hen-Nah Party and Dishoom, among others.
Born in Mumbai, Sneha Subramanian Kanta is a writer, academician, and editor. She is the sixth Poet Laureate of the City of Mississauga (2026 – 2028). Her work has been published in Magma, Wasafiri, the other side of hope, Gutter, and elsewhere. Most recently, her chapbook "Every Elegy Is a Love Poem" was published by Broken Sleep Books. She is one of the founding editors of Parentheses Journal.
About the 2026 Judge - Bhanu Kapil
Our 2026 Judge, Bhanu Kapil, is the author of seven books. Bhanu is the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, a Windham-Campbell Prize (Yale University), a Cholmondeley Award (Society of Authors), and the 16th International Poetry and People Prize (China). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a former Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a current Fellow of Churchill College, where she is writing a novel on yellow paper. Kapil's blog can be found here: https://wasjackkerouacapunjabi.blogspot.com/
Prize Submission Guidelines
We accept submissions from poets writing in English, based anywhere in the world, who have yet to publish their first full-length poetry collection.
Submissions for 2025 will be open from 1 December 2025 to 11.59pm UK 31 January 2026. The shortlist will be announced at the end of April 2026.
We consider simultaneous submissions, but please let us know promptly if work you have submitted has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
Poets may enter one poem, up to three pages of A4 (at 12pt font with standard page margins) to be considered.
Poets may send one entry in a single word document (.doc, .docx format).
Poems must be unpublished online or in print.
All submissions must be your own original work and we do not accept submissions of work created or aided in creation by the use of generative AI or generative AI tools including but not limited to ChatGPT. The contest organisers reserve the right to determine, at their sole discretion, whether a submission violates these rules. By entering, you agree to these terms and confirm that your entry is your own original work, free from the use of AI.
Only poets who have not yet published (or, as at the date of submission, are not under contract with a publisher to publish) a full length collection of poetry are eligible to enter the Prize.
We regret that we are unable to offer individual feedback on entries.
For increased accessibility, if your poem is shortlisted or selected as the winner of the Prize, we may request an audio recording of you reading the poem, to make available alongside the poem. We can provide you with technical assistance to do this if you require it, and can resolve any issues if/when your work is accepted.
If your work is accepted, all copyright remains with you as the author, however Propel retains the right to publish your submission in any subsequent digital & print issues or anthologies.
About The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize
Submissions are now CLOSED for The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize 2026
PACE (Professional and Continuing Education) is the home of the Centre for Creative Writing at University of Cambridge. We're delighted to announce our updated part-time Master’s in Creative Writing course, where students will have the opportunity to study poetry across two years at Newnham College, Cambridge. To celebrate and mark the occasion, we’re collaborating with Propel Magazine to launch The Propel Cambridge Poetry Prize!
At the University of Cambridge, we offer the opportunity to specialise in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, as well as a multi-disciplinary pathway that allows students to work in multiple genres of writing. Like Propel Magazine, our course aims to nurture emerging writers. Our poetry pathway gives students the chance to immerse themselves in specialist seminars and workshops over a two-year period, allowing talented poets to develop their craft and refine their voice. The Master’s programme is now closed to applications for the 2026/2027 academic year.
All shortlisted poets will be invited to an online workshop with Cambridge tutors. The winning poem will receive a prize of £750 and publication in Propel Magazine. The 2026 prize will be judged by Bhanu Kapil, who will select the shortlist and prize winner from a longlist of 50 entries.
