Jason Allen-Paisant (born 1980) is a Jamaican poet, writer and academic, based in the UK. His second collection of poems, ''Self-Portrait as Othello'', won the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Biography

Early years and education

Allen-Paisant grew up in a small village in

Manchester Parish The Parish of Manchester () is a Parishes of Jamaica, parish located in west-central Jamaica, in the county of Middlesex. Its Capital (political), capital, Mandeville, Jamaica, Mandeville, is a major business centre. Its St. Paul of the Cross ...

, central Jamaica. His mother was a primary school teacher. He attended the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

(Mona), followed by further study at the

École normale supérieure (Paris) The – PSL (; also known as ENS, , Ulm or ENS Paris) is a ''grande école'' in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). Due to its selectivity, historical role, and influence within F ...

, and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he earned a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) in Medieval & Modern Languages.

Writing

His dissertation was on theatre from the French- and English-speaking Caribbean and a monograph on

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott OM (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem '' Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as ...

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

, ''Théâtre dialectique postcolonial'' (Classiques Garnier), was published in 2017. A second monograph, ''Engagements with Aimé Césaire: Thinking with Spirits'', will be published in February 2024 with Oxford University Press. Allen-Paisant's first collection of poems, ''Thinking with Trees'' (2021), won the poetry category of the 2022

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year.William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'' to explore a black male immigrant's search for an identity and masculine role mode. It was a

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

Choice in 2023 and went on to win the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection and the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize. According to the Eliot Prize judging panel (which comprised

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he has been both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Professor in the Humani ...

, Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul), Allen-Paisant's collection is "a book with large ambitions that are met with great imaginative capacity, freshness and technical flair." A work of creative non-fiction by Allen-Paisant, entitled ''The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican's Search for Freedom in Nature'', was published in 2025 by

Hutchinson Heinemann Hutchinson Heinemann is a British publishing firm founded in 1887. It is currently an imprint which is ultimately owned by Bertelsmann, the German publishing conglomerate. History Hutchinson Heinemann began as Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd ...

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

Academic career

Allen-Paisant is currently Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Critical Theory and Creative Writing in the Department of English, American Studies, and Creative Writing at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He is an associate editor of the literary magazine '' Callaloo, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters''.

Personal life

Allen-Paisant lives in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, west Yorkshire, with his partner and their two children.

Bibliography

* ''Thinking with Trees'',

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom. Originally a student magazine devised by undergraduates collaborating between Oxford and Cambridge, it was refounded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was nam ...

, 2021, . * ''Self-Portrait as Othello'', Carcanet Press, 2023, . * ''The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican's Search for Freedom in Nature'',

, 2025, .

References

External links

Jason Allen-Paisant website

"Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant reads from winning collection"
BBC News.
Jason Allen-Paisant
at David Higham.
Jason Allen-Paisant
at Writers Mosaic. Living people 1980 births 21st-century Jamaican poets 21st-century Jamaican male writers Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Oxford École Normale Supérieure alumni Jamaican academics T. S. Eliot Prize winners University of the West Indies alumni {{Jamaica-writer-stub