Derek Lubangakene lives and works in Kampala, Uganda.

Despite growing up in a household full of books, he only started writing only after failing as an origami artist, a sketch-artist and poet. No regrets though. Between his day job and his moonlighting as a writer, he also works as a contributing editor at Deyu African Magazine, an online repository of contemporary African Writing.

He has been long-listed for the 2013 Golden Baobab Early-Chapter Book Prize, the 2017 Writivism Short Story Prize, and honorably mentioned in the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Prize.

His work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Omenana, Enkare Review, River River Literary Journal, Prairie Schooner, The Missing Slate, The Kalahari Review, Lawino Magazine, and the Imagine Africa 500 Anthology, among others.

He is currently working on his first novel.