Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols FRSL (born 1950) is a Guyanese poet who moved to Britain in 1977, before which she worked as a teacher and journalist in Guyana. Her first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. In December 2021, she was announced as winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Grace Nichols

FRSL
Nichols at the British Library in 2022
Born1950 (age 72–73)
Georgetown, Guyana
Occupation(s)Poet, teacher, journalist
Notable workI is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983); Sunris (1996)
SpouseJohn Agard
AwardsCommonwealth Poetry Prize, 1983;
Guyana Poetry Prize, 1996;
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2021

Early years and education

Grace Nichols FRSL was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and lived in a small village on the country's coast[1] until her family moved to the city when she was eight years old.[2] She took a Diploma in Communications from the University of Guyana, and subsequently worked as a teacher (1967–70), as a journalist and in government information services,[3] before she migrated to the United Kingdom in 1977.[4] Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.

Literary career

Her first collection of poetry, I is a Long-Memoried Woman won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize.[1] A film adaptation subsequently won a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York, and the book was dramatised for BBC radio.[1] Her novel for adults, Whole of a Morning Sky, was published in 1986. In 1992, her work featured in the anthology Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby).[3]

Nichols has published several further books of poetry, including in 2006 volume of new and selected poems, Startling the Flying Fish, and her books for children encompass collections of short stories and poetry anthologies. Her poetry is featured in the AQA, WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee), and Edexcel English/English Literature IGCSE anthologies – meaning that many GCSE students in the UK have studied her work. Her religion is Christianity after she was influenced by the UK's many religions and multi-cultural society.

Anthologise — annual poetry competition for schools

In 2011 Nichols was a member of the first ever judging panel for a new schools poetry competition named "Anthologise", spearheaded by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.[5] School students aged 11–18 from around the UK were invited to create and submit their own anthologies of published poetry. The first ever winners of Anthologise were the sixth-form pupils of Monkton Combe School, Bath, with their anthology titled The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead.[5]

Honours and recognition

Nichols has been the recipient of several awards for her poetry, beginning with the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983, for I is a Long Memoried Woman, and her work is on several GCSE syllabuses.[6]

In 2021, Nichols was the recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, on the basis of her body of work, chosen by a committee chaired by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.[7][8]

Personal life

She lives in Lewes, East Sussex,[3] with her partner, the Guyanese poet John Agard.[4]

Bibliography
  • I is a Long-Memoried Woman, London: Karnak House, 1983 to 1984
  • The Fat Black Woman's Poems, London: Virago Press, 1984
  • A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets (Barbara Burford, Gabriela Pearse, Grace Nichols, Jackie Kay), London: Sheba, 1985
  • Whole of a Morning Sky (novel), London: Virago Press, 1986
  • Over the River, 1986
  • Hurricane Hits England, 1987
  • Come into my Tropical Garden (poems), 1988
  • Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (poems), 1989
  • Sunris (poems), London: Virago, 1996
  • Startling the Flying Fish, 2006
  • Picasso, I Want My Face Back, Bloodaxe Books, 2009
  • I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2010
  • Island Man
  • The Insomnia Poems, 2017
  • Passport to Here and There, Bloodaxe, 2020

Awards

References
  1. "Grace Nichols". Literature | British Council. British Council. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  2. Grace Nichols profile at Curtis Brown.
  3. Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present, London: Vintage, 1993, p. 796.
  4. Dawes, Kwame Senu Neville (2001). Talk yuh talk: interviews with Anglophone Caribbean poets. University of Virginia Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780813919461. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
  5. "Anthologise - A national poetry anthology competition", Picador, 14 July 2011.
  6. Knight, Lucy (10 December 2021). "Grace Nichols' 'pioneering voice' wins her Queen's gold medal for poetry". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  7. "The Queen's Medal for Poetry 2021". The Royal Family. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. Bayley, Sian (10 December 2021). "Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry awarded to Nichols". The Bookseller. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  9. "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.

Further reading
  • "Grace Nichols", "Writers and Their Work" Series, Sarah Lawson Welsh (Northcote Press & the British Council; 2007)
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