Gambian-Ghanaian-Sierra Leonean poet Kweku Abimbola has been named one of twenty-three recipients of the prestigious Academy of American Poets’ 2025 Poet Laureate Fellowship, which comes with a $50,000 award. As the Poet Laureate Fellow of El Segundo, California, Abimbola joins an exceptional cohort of poets laureate from across the United States recognized for their literary excellence and community engagement.

Abimbola will use his fellowship to conduct a series of four intergenerational, generative writing workshops led by Black and Indigenous writers and artists. The project aims to bring diverse groups of poets together while highlighting Indigenous conceptions of environmental sustainability and ecopoetics, and foregrounding the often-forgotten history of Black El Segundo. The workshops will culminate in an anthology featuring work from El Segundo students and residents that celebrates the natural beauty of the city, with proceeds donated to restoration efforts after the Altadena and Pasadena fires.

Born in The Gambia and of Gambian, Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Sierra Leonean descent, Abimbola brings a distinctly African perspective to American poetry. His debut full-length collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm (Graywolf Press, 2023), was selected by Tyehimba Jess for the 2022 Academy of American Poets’ First Book Award and also won the inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize. In 2023, the collection earned him a gold medal Florida Book Award. Abimbola currently serves as an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Loyola Marymount University.

The Academy of American Poets’ fellowship program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, has awarded $7.65 million in fellowships to 149 poets laureate since its 2019 inception, establishing more than forty new laureateship positions across the United States. “The Academy of American Poets is jazzed to champion wide-ranging poetry projects produced by poets laureate in big cities and small towns alike—all across the country,” said Tess O’Dwyer, Board Chair of the Academy.

The 2025 fellows represent remarkable diversity in their backgrounds and proposed projects, ranging from poetry workshops in prisons and homeless shelters to public art installations and community healing initiatives following natural disasters. At a time when more readers are turning to poetry to make sense of the world around us, American poets are beacons of free expression, cultural insight, and civic engagement.

Abimbola’s selection highlights the Academy’s commitment to supporting poets whose work bridges cultural traditions and contemporary American experiences. His project specifically addresses environmental justice and community healing, themes that resonate deeply with his African heritage and his commitment to inclusive storytelling.

The fellowship program demonstrates poetry’s power to engage communities in meaningful dialogue about history, identity, and social change. Through his workshops and the resulting anthology, Abimbola will contribute to a growing body of work that positions poetry as both artistic expression and community activism.

Other 2025 fellows include Tommy Archuleta (Santa Fe, NM), who will work with the unhoused population; jessica Care moore (Detroit, MI), launching literacy initiatives across Detroit neighborhoods; and Mateo Quispe (Auburn, WA), the youngest city poet laureate ever and first openly queer and trans person of color to hold such a position in Auburn.

The Academy’s investment in these diverse voices reflects poetry’s evolving role in American cultural life, positioning poets as essential contributors to community building, social justice, and cross-cultural understanding.