Nick Makoha

Nick Makoha, PhD, is a Ugandan poet and playwright, the founder of Obsidian Foundation and winner of the 2026 Cholmondeley Award. His collections include The New Carthaginians (Penguin Books UK, 2025), which was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and his debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity (Peepal Tree Press, 2017), which was shortlisted for the 2017 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and named one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. Dr Makoha won the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Poetry London Prize in 2021. His poems have appeared in The Cambridge Review, The New York Times, Poetry Review, The Rialto and Wasafiri. Dr Makoha is based in London.