Nkateko Masinga

Health Humanities Scholar, Poet, and Performer in South Africa

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Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer and scholar. She is a 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow, and a Golden Key Scholar. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, the Swiss Arts Council, the Goethe-Institut South Africa in partnership with Hear My Voice, the Centre for Creative Arts, and others. In 2019, she co-won the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award and was shortlisted for the AWDT African Writers Award. In 2024, she was shortlisted for the Evaristo Prize for African Poetry. Nkateko is the director of the Internship Program at Africa In Dialogue, as well as the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa's 2021 International Writing Program (IWP) and served as the guest editor of the ‘Please See Me’ Summer Supplement, composed of work by fellow IWP alumni. In 2022 she was selected by News24 as one of South Africa's 30 Young Mandelas of the Future. Nkateko's poetry has been translated into French, Bengali, Tamil, Kanada and Romanian. Her latest book, titled “Daughter Wound”, was published by UK publisher Hazel Press in April 2024 and was Book of the Week at the London Review Bookshop in its week of release.

  • Education
    • University of Iowa, USA
    • Wagner College, USA
    • University of Pretoria, SA
Endorsements
I am a testament of the remarkable teaching and coaching from Nkateko Masinga's 'Punching Underwater' online poetry workshop. Incredibly well structured. I enjoyed interacting with a focused and disciplined artist.
Gomolemo Lolo Madikgetla
I am and have been excited by Nkateko Masinga’s poetry since I met her in 2018 at an international poetry festival in South Africa. Not only is Nkateko increasingly invited to give readings within and outside South Africa, but in addition to 'The Heart is A Caged Animal' she already has three chapbooks under her belt with a fifth accepted for publication in 2021.
Tjawangwa Dema
Can't stop choosing favourites from "The Sin In My Blackness" by Nkateko Masinga. This woman achieves a particularity (of place, context and moment) that I admire and aspire to. She does it without making it a spectacle.
Katleho Kano Shoro
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