Kayo Chingonyi's debut collection, Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus, 2017) was a Guardian and Telegraph Book of the Year, and the winner of the 2018 International Dylan Thomas Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award.
A former Burgess Fellow at the Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester, and Associate Poet at The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Kayo is now Poetry Editor for The White Review, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies at Durham University.
He has performed his work at festivals and events around the world. A Blood Condition, a new collection of poems, will be published by Chatto & Windus, and his memoir Prodigal, is forthcoming with Picador.


Synopsis - 'Kumukanda'
Translating as ‘initiation’, kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi’s remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived.
Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.
Kayo Chingonyi - 2018 Winner
In this episode, Cultural Institute intern Eddie Matthews talks to award-winning writer Kayo Chingonyi.
- Prize Homepage
- About the prize
- Previous Winners
- 2020: Bryan Washington, 'Lot'
- 2019: Guy Gunaratne, 'In Our Mad and Furious City'
- 2018: Kayo Chingonyi, 'Kumukanda'
- 2017: Fiona McFarlane, 'The High Places'
- 2016: Max Porter, 'Grief is the Thing With Feathers'
- 2014: Joshua Ferris, 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour'
- 2013: Claire Vaye Watkins, 'Battleborn'
- 2012: Maggie Shipstead, Seating Arrangements
- 2011: Lucy Caldwell, The Meeting Point
- 2010: Elyse Fenton, 'Clamor'
- 2008: Nam Le, The Boat
- 2006: Rachel Trezise, 'Fresh Apples'
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