Durban, South Africa – Poetry Africa has named Koleka Putuma, a Cape Town-based cultural worker whose work spans performance, publication and installation, as its 2026 Featured Poet. The announcement comes ahead of the festival’s 30th edition, organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and taking place at the Durban Playhouse Theatre from 5 to 10 October 2026, themed Every Word a Street, Every Voice a City.
Each year, Poetry Africa honours a leading South African poet whose work reflects the values of the country’s Constitutional Democracy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Putuma’s work explores voice and the body as channels for image, language and dream, while engaging with citation, religion, and cultural and historical identity.
Putuma has published three poetry collections, a children’s book and several plays. In September 2025, Bonnier Books UK published her debut children’s book, Everybody Has a Fear, which has since been translated into Korean, Spanish and German. In 2024, Hot Key Books (UK) published her latest poetry collection for teens and young adults, We Have Everything We Need To Start Again. She is also the Founder and Director of Manyano Media, a multidisciplinary creative company producing and uplifting stories by Black queer and non-binary artists.
“Koleka Putuma’s work is rooted in truth-telling as an act of freedom, and that has always been at the heart of what Poetry Africa stands for,” says Ismail Mahomed, Director of the Centre for Creative Arts.
A major highlight of the 2026 festival will be the 5th World Slam Poetry Championships, bringing 40 slam poets from 40 nations to Durban. Across the week, audiences will enjoy poetry that speaks to protest, identity, memory, joy and the realities of contemporary life, while hearing voices and perspectives from across the world. Three slam formats will run across the festival: the Poetry Africa National Slam Jam, the World Poetry Slam Championship, and the Chalkboard Slam for high school learners.
“Bringing slam poets from 40 nations to one stage in Durban is a reminder that poetry is one of the few languages the whole world already speaks,” says festival curator Siphindile Hlongwa.
On 8 September, Poetry Africa will host a celebratory draw to determine which countries go head to head in the four quarter-finals of the competition. The draw will be live-streamed on the Poetry Africa festival Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PoetryAfrica).
This year’s festival will feature poets from Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. The full programme, participating poets and the recipient of the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets
Tickets will be available through Webtickets from 7 September 2026.
About Poetry Africa
Poetry Africa is an annual international poetry festival curated and presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban.
Running since 1997, the festival brings together spoken-word and published poets from South Africa and around the world for performances, panel discussions, campus and school visits, poetry exchanges, book launches, open mic sessions and slam competitions.
Over 30 years, Poetry Africa has created a platform for poets and audiences to reflect on the role of poetry in society and social change, while also supporting academic scholarship in contemporary poetry at UKZN.
