Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols (born 1950) is a Guyanese poet, whose first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.

Biography

Grace Nichols 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 immigrated to the UK in 1977.^[4] Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.

Her first collection of poetry, I is a Long-Memorised Woman won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She has written several further books of poetry and a novel for adults, Whole of a Morning Sky, 1986. Her books for children include collections of short stories and poetry anthologies. Her latest work, of new and selected poems, is Startling the Flying Fish, 2006. Her poetry is featured in the AQA, WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee), and Edexcel English/English Literature GCSE 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.

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

Anthologise Annual 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. 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.

Anthologise

Bibliography

• I is a Long-Memoried Woman, London: Karnak House, 1983
• 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, 1986
• Over the River, 1986
• Hurricane Hits England, 1987
• 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

Awards

• 1983: Commonwealth Poetry Prize (for I is a Long Memoried Woman)
• 1986: Arts Council Writers' Award
• 1996: Guyana Poetry Prize (for Sunris)
• 2000: Cholmondeley Award
• 2007: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature ^[5]
• 2008: Guyana Poetry Award Never live unloved

References

1. "Grace Nichols", Literature, British Council.
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 2010-06-06.
5. "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 10 August 2010.

Further reading

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