Troy Onyango is an award-winning Kenyan writer, editor, and publisher from Kisumu. Though he is based in the United Kingdom, his literary work focuses on the African continent, where he serves as a guide and source of inspiration for numerous literary magazine publishers. He is the founder of Lolwe, one of the most influential magazines curating writing from Africa and its rich and diverse diaspora.

Troy is an entrepreneur and has successfully opened two bookshops: Lolwe Bookshops in Kisumu and its sister in Peckham, London.

Troy’s writing has been published in Prairie Schooner, Wasafiri, Isele Magazine, Johannesburg Review of Books, AFREADA, Nairobi Noir, Dgëku Magazine, and Transition, among many others. He won the inaugural Nyanza Literary Festival Prize and was the first runner-up in the Black Letter Media Competition

In 2021, Troy’s short story “This Little Light of Mine”, published in Doek! Literary Magazine, was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, becoming the first entry from a Namibian literary magazine to receive the recognition. Troy has also been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, the Brittle Paper Awards, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His debut collection of short stories For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings was published in 2022 by Masobe Books.

An alumnus of the Caine Prize Workshop, Miles Morland Workshop, Jalada Workshop, Goethe Workshop, and the Kwani?-SLS Workshop, Troy has also been a writer-in-residence at the Ebedi Writers Residency in Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Law degree and completed his MA in Creative Writing with distinction from the University of East Anglia, where he was a recipient of the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship. He also holds an MA in African Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

More from and about Troy Onyango: “Sunset Dreams” (Isele Magazine) • “Origami” (The Johannesburg Review Of Books) • “To Experience A Heart-Breaking Work Of Staggering Genius” (Caine Prize) • “We Are the Water People” (Audible) “Troy Onyango On Lolwe And Literary Publishing In Africa” (Open Country Mag) • “The New Magazines And Journals Shaping Africa’s Literary Scene” (The New York Times) • “Virtually Yours, No. 26: Troy Onyango” (Goethe-Institut Namibia) • “Lost Ones: Troy Onyango’s Treatise On Grief” (Brittle Paper)

Author image: troyonyango.com