Iheọma Uzọmba
performance poet. interdisciplinary artist. filmmaker.
Born in Nigeria and now based in Canada, Iheoma Uzomba goes by the stage name Oma is Loud. Her work spans performance poetry and interdisciplinary storytelling. Her writing has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Rattle Magazine, Palette Poetry, The Chestnut Review, The Shore Poetry and other journals, earning honours such as the Glenna Luschei Award for Poetry (2025), the Lagos–London Poetry Prize (2022), the Canadian Poetry Slam Nationals (2026) and the Bernadine Evaristo Prize for Poetry (2026). A three-time winner of the Calgary Poetry Slam (2025), she is a Poetry Translation Center (UK) UNDERTOW Fellow. Her poetry-theatre production, Pretty Dangerous: Four Acts on Womanhood, premiered at the Calgary Central Library in March 2026. She is currently pursuing a PhD in English and Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. A stark raving mad poet, she stays wild in her musings until 9 pm or so.
Press Highlight
Iheoma Uzomba Wins Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for Poetry
The Nigerian poet, a staff writer at Open Country Mag, will receive $1,500 for three poems in English and in Pidgin. It is the renowned magazine’s top honor.
“Resist Containment”: Iheoma Uzomba on Interdisciplinary Poetry and Winning the Evaristo Prize
A month after her production Pretty Dangerous: Four Acts on Womanhood wrapped in Canada, the Nigerian artist took home African poetry’s top honour. Her practice is “a way of holding those in-betweens,” she said.
Gallery
performance poetry. theatre. dance.
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