• Source: John Agard

John Agard FRSL (born 21 June 1949) is a Guyanese playwright, poet and children's writer, now living in Britain. 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.
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






Awards


1982: Casa de las Américas Prize (Cuba) for Man to Pan
1987: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (shortlist) for Lend Me Your Wings
1995: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award) (6–8 years category) for We Animals Would Like a Word With You
1997: Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry
2004: Cholmondeley Award
2007: British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year (shortlist) for We Brits
2007: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2009: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education poetry award for The Young Inferno.
2012: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
2021: BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award




References






External links


Shoot Me with Flowers, The British Library, 23 November 2021 – Asgard's first book of poems acquired for the British Library's collection
"John Agard: Making Waves at the BBC". The Poetry Society.
John Agard at British Council: Literature (includes extensive bibliography)
John Agard at the National Maritime Museum
An example of John Agard reading his poetry – "Listen Mr Oxford don" on YouTube.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Henry A. Wallace
• Barbarisme
• Republik Kristen
• John Nance Garner
• Daftar Wakil Presiden Amerika Serikat
• Ruby Rose
• Brother Nature (film)
• Barry (seri televisi)
• Kimia analisis
• David Baker
• John Agard
• Agard
• Half Caste (poem)
• AQA Anthology
• Hugo (album)
• Imtiaz Dharker
• Satoshi Kitamura
• Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare)
• Loyle Carner
• Georgetown