Panya Banjoko is a UK based writer, poet and PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University. Her debut collection, ‘Some Things’, was published by Burning Eye Books (2018). Her work features in numerous anthologies, including award-winning Dawn of the Unread (LeftLion, 2016). Her poem One of a Kind was commended in the Writing East Midlands Aurora Poetry Competition (2017) and her poem They and Them featured in an exhibition by artist, academic and critic Keith Piper at the Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London, the British Film Festival (2018) and the International Film Festival, Rotterdam (2019).
She has taught in schools and has undertaken artist residencies at the International School, Stuttgart, Germany, Jaipur Literature Festival, India, and the National Trust’s 100 verses at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire. She has received numerous awards including, Women in the Arts Poetry Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2008, the Black Achievers Culture, Music, and Arts Award for her work as a poet in 2017, and the Notts Inspirational Women’s Award (2019).
Her work has been described as ‘…poetry with hip- hop energy fused with a hymnal element…’ (Sable Magazine, 1999). Panya is a multi-award winning poet, co-ordinates a Black Writers Network and is patron for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. Find out more about me here.
Education Commissions:
When Carnival Came’ TunTum Housing, 2020.
‘A Pause’ Nottingham City Arts, 2020.
‘Dream Here’ Pathways Mural Project, New Art Exchange and the Centre for Research in Race and Rights (C3R) University of Nottingham, 2016.
Banjoko, Panya, Hari at the Castle (Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Museum Service, 2010)
Banjoko, Panya, Bibi’s Museum Adventure (Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Museum Service, 2008)
Panya the Poet 
Hello, I really love how miss banjoko here does her poems they are filled up with expression and she always isn’t shy