Nick Makoha appointed as Wasafiri’s Writer-in-Residence for 2019
By Sana Goyal on February 21, 2019 in
The magazine of international contemporary writing, Wasafiri, is delighted to announce the appointment of our new Writer-in-Residence, the poet and playwright Nick Makoha.
In this, the 35th anniversary year of Wasafiri, we are delighted to announce the prize-winning poet and playwright Nick Makoha as our 2019 Writer-in-Residence. Nick will be running this year’s Wasafiri Salon as well as participating in various live engagements – including events and Twitter takeovers. Keep an eye out on our website and social media for more information on writing workshops and live readings by him.
This follows on from our successful inaugural edition of the Salon in 2018 – when the writer, presenter, film maker and poet Bidisha served as our Writer-in Residence.
Commenting on his appointment, Nick said, ‘It is a great honour to be the Wasafiri Writer-in-Residence. My hope is to contribute to the creative cultural economy. During my tenure I hope to open up dialogues with both our new and current readership. I am keen to tap into the different African literatures that are being expressed in traditional and non-traditional means. I hope you will join me on this exciting endeavour as we start to reveal the different tales on the African spectrum.’
And Wasafiri’s deputy editor, Rukhsana Yasmin said, ‘Nick is a talented and creative poet and playwright, who deeply cares about widening the discussion around African literatures, and I’m very much looking forward to his plans and ideas as our Writer-in-Residence.’
Nick Makoha: His debut collection Kingdom of Gravity was shortlisted for the 2017 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and nominated by The Guardian as one of the best books of 2017. He is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and Complete Works Alumni. He won the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry prize and is the 2016 winner of the Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His poems have appeared in The New York Times, Poetry Review, Rialto, Poetry London, Triquarterly Review, Boston Review, Callaloo, and Wasafiri. He is a Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Goldsmiths – working to create an in-depth online digital archive of the Metic experiences of Black British Writers. He is a Trustee for the Arvon Foundation and The Ministry of Stories and a member of the Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective. His play The Dark produced by Fuel theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander Weise is on National Tour. He is currently on The Mixtape tour (a theatrical cocktail of performed poems) with writer colleague Roger Robinson – promoting Kingdom of Gravity and Roger Robinson’s soon to be released book Portable Paradise. Find him at www.nickmakoha.com @NickMakoha
Wasafiri encourages readers and writers to travel the world via the word. Since 1984, we have created a dynamic platform for the publication of international contemporary writing, featuring a diverse range of cultural contexts within the UK and beyond. In 2019 Wasafiri celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary, publishes its one-hundredth issue and marks the tenth anniversary of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize.
