The Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest) has announced the cohort for its Craft and Development Lab, selecting 11 poets and writers from more than 300 applicants across Africa and the Caribbean.
The four-month programme will bring together writers from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Jamaica/Canada, and Haiti/Trinidad and Tobago. Participants will receive workshops, one-on-one mentorship, peer critiques and professional development from an international faculty of writers.
During the programme, the writers will develop poetry collections, chapbooks, performance pieces, documentary poetry and other hybrid literary projects.
The inaugural cohort comprises:
- Ayinde Jean-Baptiste (Haiti/Trinidad and Tobago)
- Edinam Denoo (Ghana)
- Felix Eshiet (Nigeria)
- Joemario Umana (Nigeria)
- Karen Lee (Jamaica/Canada)
- Lillian Akampurira Aujo (Uganda)
- Lydia Nyachiro Kasese (Tanzania)
- Phodiso Modirwa (Botswana)
- Roseline Mgbodichinma (Nigeria)
- Salmah Suleiman Usman (Nigeria)
- Oloruntobiloba Abiodun (Nigeria)
The Craft and Development Lab is designed to support poets and writers working across poetry, spoken word, performance and interdisciplinary practice. Over the course of the programme, fellows will refine projects ranging from full-length poetry collections and chapbooks to documentary poetry, performance works and other experimental literary forms.
About The Writers
- AYINDE JEAN-BAPTISTE — HAITI/USA
Ayinde Jean-Baptiste is a sanba, Black myth scientist, and multidisciplinary writer whose work shifts culture through memory. Sko is co-creator and librettist of Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends and co-producer of the audio essay suite Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities. A disciple of Kamau Brathwaite, Sko has studied with Staceyann Chin, K’eguro Macharia, Willie Perdomo, and others through VONA, Stonecoast MFA, Wild Seeds Writers Retreat, and other Black literary and artistic communities.
- EDINAM DENOO YAWO — GHANA
Denoo Edinam Yawo is a Ghanaian poet and writer whose work explores the body, language, spirituality, and faith. She is a 2025 Black Atlantic Residency Fellow, an alumna of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies Creative Writing Workshop and the 2025 CAINE Online Editing Workshop. She was First Runner-Up in the 2025 Adinkra Poetry Prize after placing Second Runner-Up in 2024, and is a recipient of the 2025 DUAPA Mentorship Program. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Guernica, Rowayat, New Coin, and elsewhere.
- FELIX ESHIET — NIGERIA
Felix Eshiet is a Nigerian writer and Efik-Ibibio poet. A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, he is a 2025 Obsidian Foundation Fellow and winner of the 2025 Brigitte Poirson Literature Prize for Poetry. His work appears or is forthcoming in The Madrid Review, Prairie Schooner, Chestnut Review, Efiko, Porter House Review, ONLY POEMS, 20.35 Africa, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Ekondo Review, a literary magazine for Efik-Ibibio literature and art, and Poetry Editor at Bloodroot Poetry Journal, a Florida-based literary magazine.
- JOEMARIO UMANA — NIGERIA
Joemario Umana (Swan XVII) is a Nigerian creative writer and performance poet. A 2023 SprinNG Writing Fellowship Fellow, he won the 2026 Gbemisola Adeoti Prize for Poetry and co-won the 2025 Folorunsho Editor Poetry Prize. His work appears in Prairie Schooner, Chestnut Review, Frontier Poetry, Uncanny Magazine, LOLWE, and elsewhere. A finalist for the 2026 Brooklyn Poets Fellowship, he serves as Poetry Editor at Akpata Magazine and Ekondo Review, where he supports emerging literary voices.
- KAREN LEE — JAMAICA/CANADA
Karen Lee (she/shi/fi ar) is a Jamaican-Canadian actor, voice artist, vocalist, and writer based in Tkaronto, Ontario. Her work reclaims Black women’s voices in the aftermath of colonial violence, celebrating survival and resistance. She is a 2023 Cave Canem Fellow, winner of the Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Award for Poetry and the 2020 Pacific Spirit Poetry Grand Prize. Her work appears in Obsidian, Room, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, and elsewhere. Her debut manuscript, ‘Tekkin Back Tongue’, is currently under publisher review.
- LILLIAN AKAMPURIRA — UGANDA
Lillian Akampurira Aujo is a Ugandan writer whose work has been recognized by the Mslexia Poetry Pamphlet Prize, the James Berry Poetry Prize, and the Jalada Prize for Literature. She has also been shortlisted for the Gerald Kraak Award and longlisted for the Nommo Award. Her writing appears in Prairie Schooner, Transition Magazine, Jalada Africa, Adda Commonwealth, HarperVia, and elsewhere. A graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MA Creative Writing programme, she works as a writing mentor, facilitator, and editor.
- LYDIA NYACHIRO — TANZANIA
Nyachiro Lydia Kasese is a Tanzanian poet, writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, documentary filmmaker, and photographer. She is a storyteller at heart who believes in the power of storytelling to heal. Her poetry was shortlisted for the 2026 Propel Cambridge Prize. Her literary works have appeared in spaces such as The African Poetry Book Fund, The Caine Prize’s Anthology, Jalada Africa, Lolwe, Brittle Paper, Saraba Magazine, to mention a few. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Asusa Creative Writers Initiative, an NGO based in Dar es Salaam and an Obsidian Foundation 2025 Alumni.
- PHODISO MODIRWA — BOTSWANA
Phodiso Modirwa is a Motswana writer and poet with works appearing in adda Magazine, Guernica Magazine, Brittle Paper, Lolwe, and in other literary magazines. She is a Fellow of the International Writing Program (IWP). Her chapbook, Speaking in Code, is published by Akashic Books as part of the New Generation African Poets Box Set. Crossing Roads is her debut poetry collection.
- ROSELINE MGBODICHINMA — NIGERIA
Roseline Mgbodichinma is the author of A Body in Spice, selected for the African Poetry Book Fund’s New-Generation African Poets chapbook series. Her writing explores nature, womanhood, emotion, the body, and desire. A lawyer and alumna of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora West African Writers Residency Programme, her work has appeared in Isele Magazine, Brittle Paper, The Willowherb Review, Agbowo, SprinNG, Duke University Press, and elsewhere.
- SALMAH SULEIMAN — NIGERIA
Salmah Suleiman is a Nigerian poet, communications specialist, and storyteller whose work explores memory, womanhood, faith, identity, and social justice. Drawn to the intersections of the personal and political, she writes stories and poems that examine silence, resilience, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of everyday life. She is an alumna of the Flame Tree Writers’ initiative and runner-up in the Awele’s Heart Peace Prize Short Story Contest. Her work appears in the anthology Someone Should Hold Farida and on digital literary platforms. She lives and writes in Nigeria.
- OLORUNTOBILOBA ABIODUN — NIGERIA
Oloruntobiloba Abiodun is a Benin City-born storyteller and poet whose work spans poetry, performance, music, and film. Widely recognized for popularizing Nigerian Pidgin in contemporary spoken word, he is known for his distinctive voice and compelling delivery. His short story, ‘Eyes Like the Burning End of a Cigarette’, was longlisted for the PIN Prize for Fiction. His work appears in NantyGreens, Animal Press, and elsewhere. He founded Before the Silence, a global virtual poetry workshop, and currently works in advertising.
Congratulations to all selected writers!
