A little-known poet, who was turned down by three publishers, saw off competition from literary heavyweights including the Nobel winner Seamus Heaney to win one of the most prestigious literary awards today.

John Haynes, 70, impressed the judges of the Costa Book Awards, formerly known as the Whitbread Book Awards, won by Heaney twice before in the 1990s.

Letter to Patience, set in a small mud-walled bar in northern Nigeria at a time of political unrest, won him the poetry prize - one of five categories with an initial shortlist of 20 writers.

William Boyd, 54, won the novel category with Restless, an espionage story, former film-maker Stef Penney, 37, was picked for the First Novel Award for The Tenderness of Wolves, a murder mystery, Brian Thompson, 71, won the Biography Award for Keeping Mum, a witty account of his own childhood, and Linda Newbery, 54, a former Whitbread judge, got the Children's Award with Set in Stone.

They each go forward now to compete for the overall prize, which is announced on February 7.

Mr Haynes, who spent almost 20 years as an English lecturer in Nigeria, wrote a number of books on African poetry and stories for African children in the past.

More recently, he struggled to get a publisher for his own poetry and was rejected by Faber, Bloodaxe and Carcanet.

He said: "As a poet, you get used to being turned down."

Refusing to be bowed, however, he tried another, Seren, the Welsh independent publisher.

Amy Wack, its poetry editor, said yesterday: "It's a fabulous book. It's such a comprehensive view of a country."

Commenting on why others may have rejected it, she said: "He doesn't have a high profile and it's about a Third World country. It's not very commercial but, artistically, I knew it was a masterpiece. I thought, 'if no-one's going to do it, I will'."

One of the judges, Elaine Feinstein, the poet, was astonished to learn from The Times today that it had been rejected repeatedly.

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