John Agard

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Guyanese playwright, poet and writer

title: "John Agard" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1949-births", "living-people", "black-british-writers", "british-children's-writers", "british-dramatists-and-playwrights", "guyanese-children's-writers", "guyanese-dramatists-and-playwrights", "postcolonial-literature", "fellows-of-the-royal-society-of-literature", "20th-century-british-poets", "21st-century-british-poets", "21st-century-british-male-writers", "writers-from-georgetown,-guyana", "british-male-poets", "british-male-dramatists-and-playwrights", "20th-century-guyanese-poets", "21st-century-guyanese-poets", "guyanese-emigrants-to-england", "people-from-lewes"] description: "Guyanese playwright, poet and writer" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Agard" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Guyanese playwright, poet and writer ::

::data[format=table title="infobox writer "]

FieldValue
nameJohn Agard
honorific_suffixFRSL
imageIMG John Agard.jpg
captionAgard in 2025
birth_date
birth_placeGrantham, British Guiana
languagePatois
nationalityBritish
educationSt Alban's Academy
period20th century
spouseGrace Nichols
awardsPaul Hamlyn Award for Poetry (1997); Cholmondeley Award (2004); Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (2012)
::

| name = John Agard | honorific_suffix = FRSL | image = IMG John Agard.jpg | caption = Agard in 2025 | birth_date = | birth_place = Grantham, British Guiana | language = Patois | nationality = British | education = St Alban's Academy | period = 20th century | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = Grace Nichols | awards = Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry (1997); Cholmondeley Award (2004); Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (2012) | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = | imagesize =

John Agard FRSL (born 21 June 1949) is a Guyanese-born British playwright, poet and children's writer. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2021.

Biography

Agard was born in British Guiana (now Guyana), and grew up in Georgetown. He loved to listen to cricket commentary on the radio and began making up his own, which led to a love of language. He went on to study English, French and Latin at A-Level, writing his first published poetry when he was in the sixth form, and left school in 1967. He taught the languages he had studied and worked in a local library. He was also a sub-editor and feature writer for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle, publishing two books while he was still in Guyana.John Agard profile at Jubilee Books.

His father (Ted) settled in London and Agard moved to Britain with his partner Grace Nichols in 1977, settling in Ironbridge, Shropshire. He worked for the Commonwealth Institute and the BBC in London.

His awards included the 1997 Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry, the Cholmondeley Award in 2004 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012. In November 2021 he became the first poet to be awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Agard was poet-in-residence at the National Maritime Museum in 2008. His poems "Half Caste" and "Checking Out Me History" have been featured in the Edexcel and AQA English GCSE anthologies respectively, meaning that many students (aged 13–16) have studied his work for their GCSE English qualifications.

Archival literary records consisting of "letters and proofs relating to the published poetry works of John Agard" are held at Newcastle University Special Collections, in the Bloodaxe Books Archive.

Agard lives in Lewes, East Sussex, with his partner, the Guyanese poet Grace Nichols.

Bibliography

  • Listen Mr Oxford Don, 1967
  • Shoot Me With Flowers. Georgetown, Guyana, 1974
  • Letters for Lettie, and Other Stories. Bodley Head, 1978
  • Dig Away Two-Hole Tim. Bodley Head, 1981
  • Man to Pan. Casa de las Américas (Cuba), 1982
  • I Din Do Nuttin, and Other Poems. Bodley Head, 1982
  • Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses. Greenheart, 1983
  • Livingroom. Black Ink, 1983
  • Mangoes and Bullets: Selected and New Poems 1972–84. Pluto Press, 1985
  • Say It Again, Granny!. Bodley Head, 1986
  • Lend Me Your Wings. Hodder & Stoughton, 1998
  • Go Noah Go!. Hodder & Stoughton, 1990
  • Laughter is an Egg. Viking, 1990
  • The Calypso Alphabet. Collins, 1990
  • No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock (with Grace Nichols). Viking, 1991
  • The Emperor's Dan-dan. Hodder & Stoughton, 1992
  • A Stone's Throw from Embankment: The South Bank Collection. Royal Festival Hall, 1993
  • The Great Snakeskin. Ginn, 1993
  • Grandfather's Old Bruk-a-Down Car. Bodley Head, 1994
  • Oriki and the Monster Who Hated Balloons. Longman, 1994
  • The Monster Who Loved Cameras. Longman, 1994
  • The Monster Who Loved Telephones. Longman, 1994
  • The Monster Who Loved Toothbrushes. Longman, 1994
  • Eat a Poem, Wear a Poem. Heinemann Young Books, 1995
  • Get Back, Pimple!. Viking, 1996
  • We Animals Would Like a Word With You. Bodley Head, 1996
  • From the Devil's Pulpit. Bloodaxe, 1997
  • Brer Rabbit: The Great Tug-o-war. Bodley Head, 1998
  • Points of View with Professor Peekabo. Bodley Head, 2000
  • Weblines. Bloodaxe, 2000
  • Come Back to Me My Boomerang (with Lydia Monks). Orchard, 2001
  • Einstein, The Girl Who Hated Maths. Hodder Children's Books, 2002
  • Number Parade: Number Poems from 0–100 (with Jackie Kay, Grace Nichols, Nick Toczek and Mike Rosen). LDA, 2002
  • Hello H2O. Hodder Children's Books, 2003
  • From Mouth to Mouth (with Grace Nichols; illustrated by Annabel Wright). Walker, 2004
  • Baby Poems. Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2005
  • Half-Caste. Hodder & Stoughton, 2005
  • Butter-Finger (with Bob Cattell, illustrated by Pam Smy). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2006
  • We Brits. Bloodaxe, 2006
  • Wriggle Piggy Toes (with Jenny Bent). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2006
  • Shine On, Butter-Finger (with Bob Cattell, illustrated by Pam Smy). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2007
  • Checking Out Me History, 2007
  • The Young Inferno (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008
  • Tiger Dead! Tiger Dead!: Stories from the Caribbean (with Grace Nichols, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Collins Educational, 2008
  • Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (with DVD). Bloodaxe, 2009.
  • Clever Backbone.Bloodaxe, 2009
  • The Young Inferno (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2009
  • Goldilocks on CCTV (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011
  • Travel Light Travel Dark. Bloodaxe, 2013.
  • The Rainmaker Danced (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Hodder Children's Books, 2017.
  • The Coming of the Little Green Man, 2018
  • Shona, the Word Detective, 2018
  • Books Make Good Pets, 2020
  • Inspector Dreadlock Holmes and Other Stories, 2022

As editor

  • Life Doesn't Frighten Me at All. Heinemann, 1989
  • A Caribbean Dozen (co-edited with Grace Nichols). Walker Books, 1994
  • Poems in My Earphone. Longman, 1995
  • Why is the Sky?. Faber and Faber, 1996
  • A Child's Year of Stories and Poems (with Michael Rosen and Robert Frost). Viking Children's Books, 2000
  • Hello New!: New Poems for a New Century. Orchard, 2000
  • Under the Moon and Over the Sea (co-editor with Grace Nichols). Walker Books, 2002

Awards

References

References

  1. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20799970 "Poet John Agard is selected for Queen's poetry medal"], BBC News, 20 December 2012.
  2. Drabble, Emily. (9 November 2021). "'We are all creatures of language': Lifetime Achievement Award winner John Agard on his incredible life and career".
  3. Dawes, Kwame Senu Neville. (2001). "Talk yuh talk: interviews with Anglophone Caribbean poets". University of Virginia Press.
  4. Anne Mette Finderup, Agnete Fog. (2010). "Worlds of English". Systime.
  5. link. (21 May 2014)
  6. (9 November 2021). "'Poetry has power' says John Agard, the first poet to be awarded BookTrust's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award".
  7. Flood, Alison. (9 November 2021). "John Agard becomes first poet to win BookTrust lifetime achievement award". [[The Guardian]].
  8. [https://anthology.aqa.org.uk/agard "John Agard (1949–)"], AQA.
  9. [https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/69c93b46-3f68-3356-91cc-10ca85d43a80?component=ef6b24ad-71b1-3cc3-83c5-760d2beb08a3&terms=john%20agard "John Agard"], Archives Hub.
  10. (2023-09-01). "Agard, John".
  11. Flood, Alison. (14 July 2009). "Carol Ann Duffy to judge Old Possum's prize". The Guardian.
  12. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20799970 "Poet John Agard is selected for Queen's poetry medal"]. BBC News (20 December 2012). Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  13. Eyre, Charlotte. (9 November 2021). "John Agard wins BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award".

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1949-birthsliving-peopleblack-british-writersbritish-children's-writersbritish-dramatists-and-playwrightsguyanese-children's-writersguyanese-dramatists-and-playwrightspostcolonial-literaturefellows-of-the-royal-society-of-literature20th-century-british-poets21st-century-british-poets21st-century-british-male-writerswriters-from-georgetown,-guyanabritish-male-poetsbritish-male-dramatists-and-playwrights20th-century-guyanese-poets21st-century-guyanese-poetsguyanese-emigrants-to-englandpeople-from-lewes