Theresa Lola (born 6 May 1994) is a British Nigerian poet and writer. She was joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. In April 2019, she was announced as the 2019 Young People's Laureate for London.

Early life

Theresa Lola was born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, Nigeria, and moved to London, England in 2007 when she was 13. In 2015, she graduated with a first-class degree in Accounting and Finance from the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

Career

After university, Lola took part in the Barbican Young Poets programme. Shortly after she was shortlisted for the 2016 Bridport Poetry Prize, and later won the 2017 Hammer and Tongue National Poetry Slam. In 2018, she was joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. In that same year she was commissioned by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...

's Office to write and read a poem at the unveiling of Millicent Fawcett's statue at

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contai ...

. A year later, in April 2019, she was announced as the 2019 Young People's Laureate for London. In 2019 Lola's debut full-length poetry collection ''In Search of Equilibrium'' was published by Nine Arches Press, described by Pascale Petit as a "glorious hymn to being alive and wounded".

References

Writers from Lagos 21st-century Nigerian women writers Nigerian women poets Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire 1994 births Living people Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom {{Nigeria-poet-stub