Dean Atta is a British poet of

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 737,196 Cypri ...

and Caribbean descent. He has been listed by ''The Independent'' newspaper as one of the 100 most influential

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

people in the United Kingdom. In 2012, his poem "I Am Nobody's Nigger", written in response to the use of the racial slur by the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, achieved much social media coverage, and he was profiled in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Born to a Greek Cypriot mother and Jamaican father, he earned a BA degree (2006) in Philosophy and English from the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, where he was president of the African Caribbean Society. His poetry, which often deals with questions of identity and social justice, has been featured on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, and he has been commissioned to write for museums and galleries including the

Keats House Museum Keats House is a writer's house museum in what was once the home of the Romantic poet John Keats. It is in Keats Grove, Hampstead, in Inner London, inner north London. Maps before about 1915 show the road with one of its earlier names, John Str ...

, the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

and

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

. In 2018, Atta served as a judge for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Young Writers Award. In 2019 Atta's

verse novel A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there is usually a large cast, multiple voices, ...

, ''The Black Flamingo'', was published by

Hachette UK Hachette Livre S.A. (; simply known as Hachette) is a French publishing group that was based in Paris. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif which later became successively L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette ...

. For ''The Black Flamingo'', Atta was one of two winners of the

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbo ...

2020 in the Children's and Young Adults category. His poem "I Come From" was adapted into a film by afshan d'souza-lodhi. In 2024, Atta was the runner up in the Caterpillar Poetry Prize.

Books

*''I Am Nobody's Nigger'', Westborne Press, 2013 (shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize) *''The Black Flamingo'', Hachette UK, 2019 *''Only On The Weekends'', Hachette UK, 2022 *''There is (still) love here'', Nine Arches Press, 2022 *''Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body'', Canongate Books, 2024 *''Confetti'', Orchard Books, 2024 (illustrated by Alea Marley) *''I Can't Even Think Straight'', Quill Tree Books, 2025

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atta, Dean Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Sussex Black British writers English people of Greek Cypriot descent English people of Jamaican descent English male poets English gay writers Black British LGBTQ people Poets from London Stonewall Book Award winners 21st-century English male writers 21st-century British LGBTQ people English LGBTQ poets