Kweku Abimbola

Born in the Gambia, Kweku Abimbola earned his MFA in poetry from th

University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He is of Gambian,

Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Sierra Leonean descent.

Abimbola’s first full-length poetry collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm,

was published by Graywolf Press in 2023. In 2022, the début collection

was selected by Tyehimba Jess to receive the Academy of American

Poets’ First Book Award. His work has also received the “Indie Next

Award” from the Association of American Booksellers. In 2024 Saltwater

earned a Florida Book Award as well as the Nossrat Yassini First Book

Award, selected by Camille Dungy.

He has worked as a teaching artist for the literary nonprofit Inside Out

Literary Arts and lectured in English and Creative Writing at the University

of Michigan. Abimbola is presently an Assistant Professor of English

and Creative Writing at Loyola Marymount University. He began writing

after many nights spent listening to the folktales his grandfather told of

life in Gambia and Sierra Leone. His work strives to recreate the intimacy

and urgency of West African oral poetry.

Poetra Asantewa

Poetra Asantewa is a storyteller and a community catalyst. She is the author of two poetry books - “You too will know me” and “Woman, eat me whole” and a short story collection “Someone birthed them broken” (forthcoming - Amistad, 2024). She is also the founder of Black Girls Glow, an arts nonprofit that explores ways in which art can be used to build thriving ecosystems, & Tampered Press, - a literary and arts journal for Ghanaians and Africans.