Nii Ayikwei Parkes, born in the United Kingdom to parents from Ghana, where he was raised, is a performance poet, writer, publisher and sociocultural commentator. He is one of 39 writers aged under 40 from sub-Saharan Africa who in April 2014 were named as part of the Hay Festival's prestigious Africa39 project. He writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo.
Kadija George, Hon. FRSL, also known as Kadija Sesay, is a British literary activist, short story writer and poet of Sierra Leonean descent, and the publisher and managing editor of the magazine SABLE LitMag. Her work has earned her many awards and nominations, including the Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement in 1994, Candace Woman of Achievement in 1996, The Voice Community Award in Literature in 1999 and the Millennium Woman of the Year in 2000. She is the General Secretary for African Writers Abroad (PEN) and organises the Writers' HotSpot - trips for writers abroad, where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses.
Dr Brenda Mary Niall is an Australian biographer, literary critic and journalist. She is particularly noted for her work on Australia's well-known Boyd family of artists and writers. Educated at Genazzano FCJ College, in Kew, Victoria, and the University of Melbourne, Niall began writing during her time as Reader in the Department of English at Monash University.
Tishani Doshi is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. In 2006 she won the Forward Prize for her debut poetry book Countries of the Body. Her poetry book A God at the Door has been shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize under best poetry collection category.
Tall Lighthouse is an independent publishing house in the UK, established in 1999 by Les Robinson. It publishes full collections of poetry, pamphlets, and the anthology City Lighthouse, a collection of poems by established and emerging poets alike, having featured work by Maurice Riordan, Hugo Williams, Daljit Nagra and Roddy Lumsden, among others. The press has established itself as a leading light on the small press poetry scene, four of its pamphlet publications having received the Poetry Book Society's Pamphlet Choice Award in Spring 2006, Summer and Winter 2008, and Spring 2009. The press was founded by Les Robinson in 1999, and run by Robinson until 2011, when he stepped down in favor of Gareth Lewis. Robinson returned to the director's role after Lewis died in 2016.
Amy McAllister is an actress most notable for her role as Mary in hit BBC drama Call the Midwife. She recently completed work on the BAFTA Award-winning BBC/Merman comedy-drama There She Goes which stars Jessica Hynes and David Tennant as well as on Victorian detective drama Miss Scarlet and the Duke for UKTV and PBS. She is currently filming A Discovery of Witches for Sky One and has also appeared in the third series of Witless on BBC Three and in the Stephen Frears film Philomena, which stars Steve Coogan and Judi Dench.
The African Writers' Evening is the first regular evening held for African writers at the UK's Poetry Café. It was started in 2003 by Nii Ayikwei Parkes in consultation with the directors of the Poetry Society after he completed a residency there. The solid reputation of African Writers' Evening is based on its ability to consistently identify and feature talented emerging writers.
Badilisha Poetry X-Change is a platform dedicated to showcasing poetry from Africa and the African Diaspora. The project came out of recognising the lack of documentation of African poets, on the African continent and in the rest of the world. Its aims are to fill this void as well as create a comprehensive global archive of Pan-African poets that can accessed internationally. First launched in 2008 as a poetry festival, the Spier Poetry Exchange. by nonprofit organisation Africa Centre in Cape Town, the festival centred on various aspects of developing, celebrating, archiving and documenting poetry and voices. In 2009, the Spier Poetry Exchange changed to the Badilisha Poetry X-Change. Although different in name, Badilisha Poetry X-Change continues the "exchange" between poets, creating spaces and platforms for programmed poetry interventions, workshops and presentations. Its existence continues to provide new and established Pan-African voices a space of celebration, documentation, proliferation, and self-reflection.
Warsan Shire is a British writer, poet, editor and teacher, who was born to Somali parents in Kenya. In 2013 she was awarded the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize, chosen from a shortlist of six candidates out of a total 655 entries. Her words "No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark", from the poem "Conversations about Home ", have been called "a rallying call for refugees and their advocates".
Jessica Horn is a Ugandan feminist activist, writer, poet, and technical advisor on women's rights Her work focuses on women's rights, bodily autonomy and freedom from violence, and African feminist movement building. She was named as an African woman changemaker by ARISE Magazine and as one of Applause Africa's "40 African Changemakers under 40". She joined the African Women's Development Fund as director of programmes in October 2015.
Malika Booker is a British writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist, who is considered "a pioneer of the present spoken word movement" in the UK. Her writing spans different genres of storytelling, including poetry, theatre, monologue, installation and education, and her work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies. Organizations for which she has worked include Arts Council England, the BBC, British Council, Wellcome Trust, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Arvon, and Hampton Court Palace.
Inua M. M. Ellams is a UK-based poet, playwright and performer.
Miriam Nash is a Scottish poet, performer and arts facilitator. She has published a pamphlet, Small Change (2015) and a full-length poetry collection, All the Prayers in the House, (2017). She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2015, was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan poetry award in 2016, and won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2018.
Niall Campbell, is a Scottish poet. He has published two poetry collections and a poetry pamphlet. He was a recipient of the Eric Gregory Award in 2011, winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award in 2014, and was recipient of the Saltire First Book of the Year award.
Adam Lowe is a writer, performer and publisher from Leeds, UK, though he currently lives in Manchester. He is the UK's LGBT+ History Month Poet Laureate and was Yorkshire's Poet for 2012. He writes poetry, plays and fiction, and he occasionally performs as Beyonce Holes.
Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer, who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019 he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry. In May 2019, Antrobus became the first poet to win the Rathbones Folio Prize for his collection The Perseverance, praised by chair of the judges as "an immensely moving book of poetry which uses his deaf experience, bereavement and Jamaican-British heritage to consider the ways we all communicate with each other." Antrobus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.
Mary Jean Chan is a Hong Kong Chinese poet, lecturer, editor and critic. Their first poetry collection, Flèche, won the 2019 Costa Book Award in the poetry category. Their second book, Bright Fear, is forthcoming from Faber in 2023. Chan is a Ledbury Poetry Critic and was guest co-editor of The Poetry Review for Spring 2020. Chan is a judge for the 2023 Booker Prize.
Kabura Zakama is a Nigerian poet, veterinarian and an international development and humanitarian practitioner. His collection of poems, The Man Lived won the 1999 Association of Nigerian Authors ANA Poetry Prize. He has identified Birago Diop, Lenrie Peters, Tanure Ojaide and Kwesi Brew as the key influences on his poetry. In 1998, Zakama established Kairos Productions in order to publish upcoming writers. His poetry is well received across Africa and beyond.
The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is an annual award open to anyone worldwide who has not yet published a complete book. It was inaugurated in 2009 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Wasafiri magazine, to support new writers, with no limits on age, gender, nationality or background. The prize is judged in three categories: Fiction, Poetry, and Life Writing; The winners are published in the print and online magazine.
Anni Domingo is a British actress, director and writer, working in theatre, television, radio and films. She additionally holds positions on the boards of several organisations in various sectors, and has said: "You can't make a difference unless you have a seat at the table." Her writing includes plays, poetry and fiction, with her debut novel Breaking the Maafa Chain published in 2021.
