Nathan John

Nathan Kweku John has published book reviews, short fiction and a poetry collection. His scholarship largely centers on the funeral dirges of Ghana’s Akan people and the poetics of Ghanaian naming ceremonies. John’s most recent work interrogates the legacies of traditional Yoruba praise poetry and drum language on contemporary West African Afrobeats linguistics.

John's debut collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm, was selected by Tyehimba Jess to win the 2022 Academy of American Poets First Book Prize. The manuscript was published by Graywolf Press in April of 2023.