World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Nick Makoha

ニック・マコハ

Nick Makoha

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
Uganda
Nationality
Uganda
Languages
English
Residence History
Uganda (birth) → Kenya (lived) → Saudi Arabia (lived) → London, United Kingdom (long-term resident)

Career

Occupations
poet, playwright, academic
Active Years
2005-
Affiliations
King's College London (lecturer)
Memberships
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow), Cave Canem (Graduate Fellow)
Influenced By
Kwame Dawes, George Szirtes, Bernardine Evaristo, Malika Booker, Roger Robinson
Nominations
2017 Forward Prize (Best First Collection) shortlist — Kingdom of Gravity, 2019 Alfred Fagon Award shortlist — The Dark, 2025 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist — The New Carthaginians

Education

King's College London
Creative Writing
Degree: PhD
Country: United Kingdom
Holds a PhD in Creative Writing from King's College London and lectures there

Awards

Brunel University African Poetry Prize
2015
Work: Resurrection Man
Organization: The Poetry Society / Brunel University African Poetry Prize
Result: 共同受賞
Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize
2016
Work: Resurrection Man
Organization: Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize
Result: 受賞
Ivan Juritz Prize
2021
Work: A Low-Pressure System
Organization: King's College London (Ivan Juritz Prize)
Result: 受賞
Poetry London Prize
2021
Work: Hollywood Africans
Organization: Poetry London
Result: 受賞
International Play Reading Festival
2021
Work: The Dark
Organization: International Play Reading Festival / Columbia University School of the Arts
Result: 受賞
Forward Prize for Poetry (Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection)
2017
Work: Kingdom of Gravity
Category: Best First Collection（フェリックス・デニス賞）
Organization: Forward Arts Foundation
Result: 最終候補
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2025
Organization: Royal Society of Literature
Result: フェロー選出

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man

2005 Poetry (chapbook)

An early chapbook of poems exploring personal history and loss of presence.

losspersonal historymovement

Kingdom of Gravity

2017 Poetry

First full-length collection; ethically charged, powerful poems exploring personal and historical memory.

ethicsremembrancehomeland and exile

Resurrection Man

2017 Poetry (chapbook)

A chapbook of poems intertwining personal memories with historical events.

memoryhistorybody and resurrection

The Dark

2018 Play (Drama)

A play inspired by experiences of leaving Uganda; it depicts fear under dictatorship and journeys of displacement.

dictatorshipexiletrauma
Adaptations
  • [Stage production] The Dark (stage production)

The New Carthaginians

2025 Poetry

A poetry collection based on the 1976 Entebbe hijacking, juxtaposing flights with personal memory.

retelling historyflight and movementmemory and identity

Bibliography

  • The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man (2005)
  • Kingdom of Gravity (2017)
  • Resurrection Man (2017)
  • The Dark (play, 2018)
  • The New Carthaginians (2025)

Adaptations

  • Stage production of The Dark (won at International Play Reading Festival)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
energetic, declarative poetic voiceethically charged expression
Recurring Motifs
exile and movementimagery of flight and journeysmemory and retelling

Legacy

Nick Makoha, born in Uganda, is recognised as a poet, playwright and academic who channels migration experiences into his work. He founded the Obsidian Foundation to support Black poets of African descent and has received and been shortlisted for several international awards.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature

Quotes

  • His work "is charged with ethical sensibility. The lines protest as they sing."
    Source: Carol Rumens, The Guardian (2017) (2017)

Trivia

  • Founded the Obsidian Foundation to support Black poets of African descent.
  • Was a member of the poetry collective Malika's Kitchen.
  • Represented Uganda at Poetry Parnassus in 2012.