Desire Path, a conversation with Migwi Mwangi

Migwi Mwangi is a storyteller from Nairobi. His poem 'Ambient Prisoner's Dilemma' appeared in Qwani 04, the Nairobi Anthology. His other works have been featured in Adroit Journal, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Prairie Schooner, among others. He has received a Pushcart nomination, awards from the Poetry Society of America and Prairie Schooner, as well as a fellowship from the NYU MFA program. Migwi is the 2026 winner of the Agnes Lynch Starret Poetry Prize for his debut collection, Desire Path (University of Pittsburgh Press), is forthcoming in September 2026.

Q: What inspired you to write a poetry collection in the themes of nationhood and small communities across cultural landscapes?

M.M: With everything happening in the world and against nations, the dangers of nationalism are a prescient concern.

I turn to small communities in celebration of the everyday lives of people who find ways to not only survive but also to thrive. In these spaces, I find hope and so much joy.

My collection explores, among other things, ordinary lives in small communities. A shopkeeper in debt, a woman drinking tea, people listening to the radio, farmers and brokers, children eating sweets, the ways we agitate belonging and un-belonging in cultures, religions, countries.

Q: Is there hard work behind writing poetry and do you rely on life experiences or reading, imitating and adapting?

M.M: Of course, it’s work. All of that—reading, lived experiences, imagination, craft, experimentation—is part of the work and is in conversation with it.

I enjoy reading many books concurrently (perhaps I am unable not to). I read poetry alongside fiction and find it crucial to engage with visual work, usually photographs or film. My current obsessions are figurations of rest in Wangari Mathenge’s incredible work, Roberto Bolaño’s Last Evenings on Earth (translated by Chris Andrews) and re-reading Gwendolyn Brooks’s The Bean Eaters which I adore.

My writing process is varied. A thorough line is that my work is a conversation with the writers and artists I am thinking with through their works. I accumulate what I notice from the everyday, obsessions, what moves me, my photos gallery, conversations with friends. Sometimes I write by responding to a growing list of questions that I keep. Often, I write and revise on the move as I walk. When I sit to write, it is on a paper strewn or ‘messy’ desk. It reminds me that my work need not be ‘clean’ or polished rather a generative motion, an agitation, a fed nourishment. It also reminds me that none of my works are without provenance.

Q: A lot of writers often skip deadlines and keep much of their work to themselves. How do you overcome self-neurosis and imposter syndrome?

M.M: Because I am reading Bolaño, I am struck by how often his crowd are writers baffled by the trajectory of their lives, stranded by their chosen and unchosen desertions, and who find in minutiae enough disruption, enough legroom, enough windows, if only for a second, if only in the rearview mirror.

Q: Does finding personas framed after writers help centre your path as a poet? Or are you working out your own notions about writing ?

M.M: I don’t know about personas. I know that I am, like anyone, writer or not, shaped by those around me. I am deeply interested in joy, community, and compassion. These interests have been shaped by writers such as Ross Gay, Gina Berriault, Binyavanga Wainaina, Brooks and others. None of my postures, my movements, my materials are new. Thankfully, all I have to do is show up to the page earnestly, turn things over and over, disrupt myself and my own ideas about what writing should be. In Desire Path, I attempted to be daring in scope, style, and gesture differently in each poem.

Q: How different is the poetry scene in the US from that in Kenya? And what can be done on our side to compensate for this gap?

M.M: I think there are more literary and artistic networks in the US. Kenya also has a lot of exciting spaces like Qwani, artist collectives and such. These communities are so important and have limitless possibilities for creation and community.

Q: How can a Kenyan audience access copies of Desire Path?

M.M: The book will be available from Sep 8, 2026 and can be shipped anywhere.