Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright based in London and founder of Obsidian Foundation. His new collection is The New Carthaginians, (Penguin 2025). Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and the Poetry London Prize. 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. His poems have appeared in Poetry, the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo, Birmingham Lit Journal and Wasafiri. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).

Learn more on Nick's website.

Research interests

• Contemporary and Diasporic Poetics
• Afrosurrealism and Mythic Structures
• Ekphrasis in Poetry and Visual Culture
• African & Black British Literary Movements
• Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Cultural Codex
• Black Metic Identity and Cultural Hybridity

Teaching

Nick Makoha has taught widely across academic, cultural, and international settings, offering instruction in creative writing, poetry, and contemporary literature. His teaching approach is grounded in nurturing each writer’s distinct voice, while situating creative practice within broader literary and historical frameworks.

He has held teaching and mentoring roles at leading universities and institutions in the UK, Europe, Africa, and North America, working with undergraduate, postgraduate, and early-career writers. His teaching is informed by a commitment to accessibility, rigour, and cultural context, with a particular focus on Black and diasporic poetics, craft innovation, and transnational literary dialogue.

Internationally, Nick has led workshops, residencies, and masterclasses at festivals, cultural centres, and foundations often bringing together diverse groups of writers across borders and disciplines. He is equally experienced in online and in-person delivery, and adept at facilitating deep critical engagement, peer exchange, and professional development for writers at all levels.

Expertise and public engagement

Nick Makoha is a prominent voice in contemporary poetry, frequently engaged in public discourse around literature, identity, and diasporic experience. In 2025, he was featured on BBC’s The Cultural Frontline, discussing his latest collection, The New Carthaginians (Penguin UK), which reimagines exile, myth, and Black futurity. He has appeared on Sky News and contributed to conversations at the Gillette “Being A Man” Festival, exploring masculinity, migration, and creativity. For the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Off the Shelf, he joined fellow poets in a conversation on cultural memory and minority languages. In an edition of WritersMosaic – In Conversation, Makoha discussed the personal and historical layers of The New Carthaginians with poet Hannah Lowe. He has also contributed to the Hay Festival Book Club, reflecting on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, alongside Arwa Mahdawi and Dante Micheaux. Most recently, for the ICA’s Frequencies series, he was in dialogue with comedian and writer Twayna Mayne, unpacking themes of legacy, loss, and imagination found in his new work. These appearances reflect Makoha’s commitment to bridging academic, cultural, and public spheres through poetry.

Selected publications

• The New Carthaginians (Penguin, 2025)
• The Dark (Oberon Books, 2018)
• Kingdom of Gravity (Peepal Tree Press, 2017)
• Resurrection Man (Jai-Alai Books, 2017)
• The Second Republic (Slapering Hol Press 2014)
• Lost Collection of an Invisible Man (Flipped Eye, 2005)