1949
British Guyana
British Guyanese
1997 – The Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry
2004 – The Cholmondeley Award
2012 – The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry
November 2021 – The first poet to be awarded Book Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Agard grew up in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). 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 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.
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 AQA English GCSE anthology since 2002, 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
Partner – Grace Nichols
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Agard accessed 19/03.2022
https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/john-agard accessed 19/03/2022
https://poetryarchive.org/poet/john-agard/ accessed 19\03/2022
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/684503 accessed 19/03/2022
