“The most important feature in any room is the floor. This is because it is what supports and holds things together. When I am being the floor for my wife and kids that’s what holds me together as a writer.”
Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright based in London.
The difference between a PhD and being a full-time writer
On passing go and becoming transformed by a different kind of education
Nick Makoha in conversation with Hannah Lowe
Nick Makoha has been inspired by the work of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat for his latest poetry. Makoha talks to fellow poet Hannah Lowe about the roots and life of the poems in the New Carthaginians.
Biography
Nick Makoha is the founder of The Obsidian Foundation. In 2017, Nick’s debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. Nick is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and the Complete Works alumnus. He won the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man.
His poems have appeared in the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, ‘e Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, Boston Review, Callaloo and Wasafiri. He is a Trustee for the Arvon Foundation and the Ministry of Stories, and a member of the Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective.
