Out Of Africa: Lagos International Poetry Festival Invites Applications To Inaugural Craft And Development Lab
Applications are now open for the first cohort of the Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest) Craft and Development Lab, a four-month virtual programme for poets, spoken word artists, and writers from Africa and the diaspora. The Lab is designed for creatives with active projects already in development: manuscripts, spoken word albums, poetry films, stage works, […]
Black News 
Applications are now open for the first cohort of the Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest) Craft and Development Lab, a four-month virtual programme for poets, spoken word artists, and writers from Africa and the diaspora.
The Lab is designed for creatives with active projects already in development: manuscripts, spoken word albums, poetry films, stage works, and other long-form creative projects that need time, structure, critique, and sustained engagement.
Over four months, participants will take part in craft sessions, one-on-one mentorship, professional development conversations, and peer critique with a cohort of fellow writers working across poetry, performance, and literary forms. The programme is free to apply to and free to participate in.
The inaugural faculty is made up of writers whose work has shaped contemporary conversations around poetry, performance, and the possibilities of literary form, including Romeo Oriogun, winner of the NLNG Literature Prize, National Book Award finalist, and Professor of Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University; Titilope Sonuga, beloved Nigerian-Canadian poet, spoken word artist, and former Poet Laureate of Edmonton; and Nick Makoha, award-winning Ugandan poet, author of Kingdom of Gravity and The New Carthaginians, and founder of the Obsidian Foundation.
The Lab is open to:
- Early- to mid-career poets, spoken word artists, and writers
- Writers based in Africa or the diaspora
- Writers with active projects currently in development
- Applicants comfortable working and receiving feedback in English
Interested participants will need to provide:
- Two to three poems, or an equivalent passage of a prose/spoken word script, at a maximum of 1,500 words and submitted in PDF format
- A 300-word statement, outlining work in progress and expectations from the programme
Deadline for applications is Friday 3rd July 2026. Find out more and apply here.
