Mawiyoo, Ngwatilo

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo is a Kenyan writer, filmmaker, and actress best known for her work as a poet. Her ongoing writing project, Witness & Dream, explores the lived experience of diverse rural Kenyan communities. Her first collection, Blue Mothertongue, was published in 2010. Ngwatilo’s poems have appeared in Wasafiri, Transition, Johannesburg Review of Books, Obsidian, and Kwani? among others. She has twice been shortlisted for the Brunel University African Poetry Prize and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Ngwatilo received a grant from Docubox, the East African Film Fund, which enabled her to produce her debut short film Joy’s Garden, which she wrote and directed. She works occasionally as a copywriter and editor.