BIO

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo is a Kenyan writer, filmmaker, and actor best known for her work as a poet. Her ongoing writing project Witness & Dream explores the lived experience of diverse rural Kenyan communities. The project took her to live with several families, each over a period of 10 days. These travels were the subject of her thesis at the University of British Columbia’s Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program, and in large part her 2016 chapbook, Dagoretti Corner, edited by Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes. Her first collection, Blue Mothertongue, was published in 2010.

Ngwatilo’s poems have appeared in Wasafiri, Transition, Johannesburg Review of Books, Obsidian, Kwani? and elsewhere. She's been twice shortlisted for Brunel University’s African Poetry Prize, and twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is also a past Callaloo fellow and has been a Bundanon Trust Residency recipient through The Africa Centre.

Ngwatilo received a grant from Docubox, East Africa’s Film Fund, enabling her to produce her debut short film Joy’s Garden, which she wrote and directed, and completed in 2020. She occasionally works as a copywriter and editor.

A quick note on pronunciation:

NGWA-ti-lo sounds a bit like GUA(comole) - ti (as in Timber) - lo (as in jello). The stress on the first syllable, the ‘n’ at the back of the throat.