(Photo credit: © Pierrette Boily)
Chimwemwe Undi is a poet, editor and lawyer based on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Her debut full-length collection, Scientific Marvel, won the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award in Poetry. Having been an active member of Manitoba’s poetry community for more than ten years, Ms. Undi is the recipient of a CBC Manitoba "Future 40" award and a Winnipeg 150 Medal, among other awards. Her writing explores questions of identity, belonging, climate change, justice and the limits of language.
Ms. Undi is an advocate in many senses. From 2023 through 2024, she served as the third Winnipeg Poet Laureate. In addition to her work in the literary world, she is a lawyer at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, where her practice is focused on professional regulation, labour and employment.
Prior to studying law, Ms. Undi received undergraduate and graduate degrees in linguistics from the University of Manitoba and York University in Toronto. She lives in Winnipeg with a cellist, a kitten and a mutt.
