About the 2022 judge:

Deshawn McKinney is a writer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His art, grounded in hip-hop, explores the delicate balance of existence. Deshawn has built audiences around the world, from Kingston, Jamaica to London, England. He holds an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA in Poetry from the University of East Anglia. His work appears in journals such as Lolwe and Glass. The winner of the 2021 River Heron Poetry Prize, his debut chapbook, father forgive me, was published in 2021 by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press.