Kayo Chingonyi Wins Dylan Thomas Award

Zambian-British poet Kayo Chingonyi has won the UK's £30,000 Dylan Thomas award for his collection Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus/Penguin, 2017). "The Swansea University International Dylan Thomas prize is awarded each year for the best literary work by an author aged 39 or under – the age the beloved Welsh poet was when he died," reports Alison Flood for The Guardian. More:

Chingonyi, who was born in Zambia and moved to the UK aged six, writes in the poem Self-Portrait as a Garage Emcee of how, “In time, I could rattle off The Slim Shady LP line for line / though no amount of practice could conjure the pale skin / and blue eyes that made Marshall a poet and me / just another brother who could rhyme”. In Casting, he writes: “Three years RADA, two years rep and I’m sick / of playinglean dark men who may have guns. / I have a book of poems in my rucksack, / blank pad, two pens, tattered A-Z, headphones / that know Prokofiev as well as Prince Paul.”

In his review for the Guardian, Ben Wilkinson called Kumukanda “an authentic and convincing book of poems in its many nuanced portrayals and unflinching reflections … As Valerie Mason-John once dryly observed: ‘Don’t categorise yourself as a black or ethnic poet. There’s no need to, the media will do that for you.’ Chingonyi goes one better, using his lyric panache to honour pop references and cultural experiences of personal and communal significance while also turning the tables, casting a wry and intelligent eye on our wider attitudes.”

Read on here.