Credit: Kosisochukwu Ugwuede
My name is Kosisochukwu W. Ugwuede (b. 1991). I am a reporter, essayist, editor and photographer from Enugu, Nigeria.
I have published essays and photographs in several journals including A Long House, DIAGRAM, Lolwe, Psaltery & Lyre, The Arkansas International, The Sole Adventure, Bloomberg CityLab and The Smart Set.
While my thematic interests vary, I am often preoccupied and return to writing about place, the histories of the faiths we practice, the doubts that plague us about the divine, the superstitions we believe or tell ourselves, and the ways these colour our sociocultural interactions. I write, too, about photographs and films as representations of personal and cultural moments.
My writing was awarded a Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction (2024) and shortlisted for the Koffi Addo Writivism Prize for Nonfiction (2023). It has received Best Spiritual Literature and Best of the Net nominations.
My reporting has received a Society of Professional Journalists' Excellence in Journalism Award as well as the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association's Better Newspaper Contest Awards for business and government coverage.
I graduated Oregon State University's MFA in nonfiction writing program and earned an undergraduate degree in Microbiology & Biochemistry from the University of Nigeria.
I currently serve on the reading board of The Plentitudes and was prose editor for the eighth issue of Oregon State's literary journal, 45th Parallel.
In my downtime, I write a Substack newsletter called Immensities where I attend to small obsessions about what I am reading, watching, listening to, living or witnessing.