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Samatar Elmi is an award-winning poet, musician, editor and educator. His books include Portrait of Colossus (flipped eye press, 2021) and The Epic of Cader Idris (Bloomsbury, 2024). He releases music as Knomad Spock and is touring nationally throughout 2026 with three new poetry collections.
Samatar Elmi is an award-winning writer, musician, editor and educator. His debut pamphlet, Portrait of Colossus (flipped eye press, 2021), was selected as a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. His debut collection, The Epic of Cader Idris (Bloomsbury, 2024), includes the poem that won the 2021 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Magma and Iota. Elmi is an Obsidian Fellow and an associate poetry editor at flipped eye press. He tours nationally throughout 2026 with Agen Bien Fou, Reclamations: Disregard Prior Prompt and 26 Poems for Cash, co-written with Sam Telford. As Knomad Spock, he has released three critically acclaimed albums.
Samatar Elmi is an award-winning writer, musician, editor and educator whose work brings poetry into conversation with myth, history, diaspora, sound and speculative futures. His debut pamphlet, Portrait of Colossus (flipped eye press, 2021), was selected as a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. His debut full-length collection, The Epic of Cader Idris (Bloomsbury, 2024), includes the poem that won the 2021 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Magma and Iota, and in anthologies including More Fiya, Filigree, After Sylvia and The Echoing Gallery. He is an Obsidian Fellow and an associate poetry editor at flipped eye press.
Throughout 2026, Elmi is touring nationally with three collections published concurrently: Agen Bien Fou (Kulvert Books, 2026), Reclamations: Disregard Prior Prompt (Aout Fecit, 2026) and 26 Poems for Cash, co-written with Sam Telford (Kulvert Books, 2026). Further books are in development for 2027, alongside After Cordelia, a stage reimagining of King Lear commissioned by Fio Theatre, Cardiff.
Elmi has performed at major festivals and venues including Latitude, London Literature Festival, Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival, Echoes Literature Festival, Southbank Centre, Serpentine Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery, and for RAPP Party, Raise the Bar and Hammer & Tongue. As Knomad Spock, he has released Winter of Discontent, A Darker Light and Through the Walls. His music has been reviewed by Clash, Afropunk, Buzz and Record Collector, featured on BBC Radio 6, and performed live in session for Janice Long on BBC Wales. Frequent collaborators include Jamie Smith, Stewart Baxter, Oliver Kilpatrick, Mark Slater, and Mark and Daniel Richardson of Original Brew. His educational work spans training and development, specialist mentoring, neurodiversity, human capital development and access to future skills.
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Coverage of Samatar Elmi’s poetry and Knomad Spock’s music, collected for editors, programmers and researchers.
“Radical wordplay”
Philip Gross
“Immediately striking”
CAConrad
“Brilliant, subversive, surreal”
Warsan Shire
“Utterly beguiling”
GoldFlakePaint
“Particularly striking is the work of Samatar Elmi, whose plangent lyrics disguise a sharp bite.”
The Guardian
“Within seconds of hearing Knomad Spock’s voice, it’s pretty clear that you’re listening to something pretty special.”
Clash
“Some records just hit you at the right moment.”
AFROPUNK
