The Abebi AfroNonfiction Institute has announced the winners of the 2025 Abebi award in AfroNonfiction, honouring Nigerian women writers whose essays bear witness to lived experience with courage, literary rigour, and emotional clarity.

The founder of the Institute, Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe, said the award was created to give women permission and power to tell their stories without apology.

In her remarks, she said there are many opportunities for fiction and poetry writers, but it appears non-fiction as a genre does not enjoy that spotlight and development.
   
She emphasised that the award is set up to hear Nigeria women speak, telling their own story in their own ways and their own terms, letting the whole society to see what can be learned from that.
 
“We believe literature can be both a mirror and a hammer,” she said. “These essays do not only reflect truth; they shape it. They break silence, build community, and remind us that women’s lived experiences are worthy of serious literary attention.”

Celebrating the third edition, the Abebi Award invited submissions on the theme “Witness,” calling on writers to observe themselves, their communities, and the forces shaping their lives with radical honesty.

According to the organisers, the 2025 call received over 200 submissions from Nigerian women writers exploring subjects ranging from grief and faith to embodiment, technology, survival, and healing.

Beyond the award, selected writers participated in an intensive creative nonfiction residency facilitated by Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe. The programme focused on mind mapping, editorial development, close reading, and literary analysis, while also fostering a supportive community. Participants described the residency as transformative, offering both creative growth and personal affirmation.

The 2025 Abebi Award winner, Sapphire Mclaniyi-Agbley knew from her essay ‘Ká ríra lọrun’, an intimate essay rendered in five fragments that holds a father’s death as both burden and gift, resisting easy binaries while exploring loss and freedom.

The runner-up, Nneoma Kenure, was recognised for The Weight of Our Bodies, a piercing meditation on girlhood and the female form that interrogates objectification and self-surveillance before arriving at a quiet reckoning with self-compassion.

While notable entries include Chisom Benedicta Nsiegbunam’s A Lineage of Mantles, a series of letters examining inherited faith; Erere Onyeugbo’s There Is a Bullet With Your Name On It, a sharp exploration of Nigeria’s digital culture and screen addiction; and Chinwendu Queenette Nwangwa’s Hold Me in Love, Hide Me in God, an unflinching survivor’s testimony where brutality and divinity collide.

Sponsored by Selar, the Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction celebrates Nigerian women’s creative nonfiction through publication opportunities and international recognition, amplifying voices committed to truth-telling, witness, and literary excellence.