Raymond Antrobus

Raymond Antrobus was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of To Sweeten Bitter and The Perseverance. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. Other accolades include the Ted Hughes award, PBS Winter Choice, A Sunday Times Young Writer of the year award and The Guardian Poetry Book Of The Year 2018, as well as being shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, (Judged by Ocean Vuong), for his poem Sound Machine. His poem Jamaican British was added to the GCSE syllabus in 2019. In 2021 Raymond was awarded an MBE for his services to literature. His third poetry collection All The Names Given was published by Picador in 2021 and his debut children’s picture book Can Bears Ski? (illustrated by Polly Dunbar) was published by Walker Books in 2022.

Find him online at raymondantrobus.com, on Instagram as @raymond_antrobus and Twitter as @RaymondAntrobus.