Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987, and moved to the UK at the age of six. He read English Literature at the University of Sheffield, and completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, London. He is an alumnus of the Complete Works programme, and his writing references many artists and music genres including funk, classical, blues, hip hop, reggae, folk songs, and grime. His first full-length collection, Kumukanda, won the Dylan Thomas Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award, and his most recent collection A Blood Condition (2021) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Costa Poetry Award. He became the first ever poetry editor at Bloomsbury in 2021, and he is the editor of More Fiya, a landmark anthology of Black British poets working today and a companion publication to The Fire People, a major anthology of Black British poets which was edited by Lemn Sissay in 1998. In addition to being a poet and editor, Chingonyi teaches, writes and produces music, organises and hosts poetry, music events and radio programmes, and DJs
