Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019, he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry."Deaf poet Raymond Antrobus wins Ted Hughes award"
BBC News, 28 March 2019. In May 2019, Antrobus became the first poet to win the Rathbones Folio Prize for his collection ''The Perseverance'', praised by chair of the judges as "an immensely moving book of poetry which uses his deaf experience, bereavement and Jamaican-British heritage to consider the ways we all communicate with each other." Antrobus was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 2020.

Biography

Early years

Raymond Antrobus was born in Hackney, East

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, to an English mother and a Jamaican father who in the 1960s had emigrated to England to work.Biography
at Raymond Antrobus website. As a young child, Antrobus was thought to have learning difficulties, until his deafness was discovered when he was six years old. Speaking of his early years, he has said:

Education and career

Antrobus became a teacher and was one of the first recipients of an MA degree in Spoken Word education from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has had fellowships from Royal Society of Literature, Cave Canem, The Complete Works 3 and Jerwood Compton. In 2015, he was shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate of London. Interviewed in 2016, he said: "I've had many jobs working in removals, gyms, swimming pools, security, etc, but now I make my living off teaching and touring my poetry... and I've never felt more useful working in education as a Jamaican British poet." Of his beginnings as a poet, he says: "When I realised that I wanted to pursue poetry as a career I started looking for a community. At first I came across the London Slam and Open Mic scene, which to me is more of a community than it is a genre. ... and once I found that community I felt very nurtured by it. So for me, certainly there were people like Karen McCarthy Woolf, Jacob Sam-La Rose, and Roger Robinson who were doing a lot of mentoring at the time, but really my first poetry mentor was Malika Booker, which must have been when I was about 21." From 2010 to 2018, Antrobus was a founding member of Chill Pill at The Albany in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

as well as of the Keats House Poets Forum, and co-curated shows featuring such people as Kae Tempest, Sabrina Mahfouz, Inua Ellams, Kayo Chingyoni, Warsan Shire, Anthony Anaxagorou and Hannah Lowe. Antrobus has read and performed at major UK festivals and internationally, including in South Africa, Kenya, North America, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, and has held multiple residencies in schools, as well as at Pupil Referral Units."Meet Raymond Antrobus: The PBS Winter Choice"
Poetry Book Society, 12 October 2018. His work has been widely published in many literary magazines, journals and other outlets, among them BBC 2,

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 ...

, '' Poetry Review'', ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'', ''The Deaf Poets Society'', '' The Big Issue'', '' The Jamaica Gleaner'' and ''

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 ...

''. In 2019, he headlined the London Book Fair as "Poet of the Fair". In April 2022, Antrobus featured (alongside Margaret Busby) in a Backlisted podcast about Jamaican writer Andrew Salkey and his 1960 novel '' Escape to An Autumn Pavement''.

Writing

In 2012, Burning Eye Books published the pamphlet ''Shapes & Disfigurements of Raymond Antrobus'', about which one reviewer wrote: "Exploring themes of outsider introspection, family connections, love and tangential inspiration, bestriding the continents in search of the answers to the keys questions, it's a chapbook that summons a chest-swelling furore of emotions." His second pamphlet, ''To Sweeten Bitter'' — "a very personal exploration of the father/son relationship" — came out in 2017, the same year as his poem "Sound Machine", first published in '' The Poetry Review'', won the Geoffrey Dearmer Award, judged by Ocean Vuong. Antrobus's debut book, ''The Perseverance'', was published by Penned in the Margins in 2018, going on to many accolades and critical acclaim. Among those who gave positive reviews of ''The Perseverance'', Kaveh Akbar said: "It's magic, the way this poet is able to bring together so much — deafness, race, masculinity, a mother's dementia, a father's demise — with such dexterity. Raymond Antrobus is as searching a poet as you're likely to find writing today. Describing the book as "an insightful, frank and intimate rumination on language, identity, heritage, loss and the art of communication", Malika Booker writes: "These colloquial, historical and conversational poems plunder the space of missing, and absence in speech/ our conversations — between what we hear and what we do not say. ... Thought-provoking and eloquent monologues explore the poet's Jamaican/ British heritage with such compassion, where the spirit and rhythm of each speaker dominates. These are courageous autobiographical poems of praise, difficulties, testimony and love.'" The collection was a Poetry Book Society Choice, and won the Ted Hughes Award (judged by Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mark Oakley and Clare Shaw) in March 2019, followed in May 2019 by the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the first time to a poet. ''The Perseverance'' was also shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and the Somerset Maugham Award, and was chosen as Poetry Book of the Year by both ''

'' and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', and Book of the Year by the Poetry School.''The Perseverance''
at Penned in the Margins. Also in May 2019, Antrobus was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry. In December 2019, ''The Perseverance'' was awarded the Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. Antrobus wrote his first picture book, ''Can Bears Ski?'' (2020), after being unable to find any children's titles with a deaf protagonist.

Influence and recognition

Antrobus was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to literature. In June 2022, Antrobus's poems "The Perseverance" and "Happy Birthday Moon" were added to the UK's OCR

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

syllabus. In April 2022, Rose Ayling-Ellis, deaf actress and winner of '' Strictly Come Dancing'', made history by signing a BSL version of Antrobus's children's picture book ''Can Bears Ski?'' on

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

– the first airing of a story told entirely in British Sign Language. That same month Ayling-Ellis signed and performed Antrobus's poem "Dear Hearing World" at the BSL rally on

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

in support of the BSL Act. Antrobus was on the 2023 PEN Pinter Prize judging panel, alongside Ruth Borthwick and Amber Massie-Blomfield, when the award was won by Michael Rosen. Antrobus was nominated for the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize, alongside Karen McCarthy Woolf, Carl Phillips, Gboyega Odubanjo, Rachel Mann and others.

Personal life

In April 2019, Antrobus married Tabitha, a photographer and art conservator from

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, with whom he collaborates. Their son was born in 2021.

Selected works

Poems

"Status"
''And Other Poems'', 7 June 2013.
"To Sweeten Bitter"
''Magma Poetry'', 2015.
"Dear Hearing World"
''The Deaf Poets Society'', 2016.
"His Heart"
''And Other Poems'', 15 November 2016.
"Sound Machine"
'' The Poetry Review'', 107:1, Spring 2017; The Poetry Society. Winner of Geoffrey Dearmer Award.
"Echo"
(podcast), ''Poetry'', 6 March 2017.
"I Move through London Like a Hotep"
''Poetry'', May 2018.
"Ode To My Hair"
''Wildness Journal'', issue 14, 2018.
"Maybe I Could Love a Man"
''MOKO, Caribbean Arts & Letters'', 2018.
"After Being Called A Fucking Foreigner in London Fields"
''New Statesman'', 24 October 2018.
"For Rashan Charles"
''Poets.org'', February 2019.
"Maybe my most important identity is being a son"
Poetry Foundation, March 2019.
"Happy Birthday Moon"
Forward Arts Foundation, 2019 (from ''The Perseverance'').

Articles

* , Apples and Snakes blog, 2014.
"Echo (A Deaf Sequence)"
'' Poetry Magazine'', 9 March 2017.
"Raymond Antrobus at Kingston Book Festival"
British Council, Literature blog, 22 March 2018.

Pamphlets

* 2012: ''Shapes & Disfigurements of Raymond Antrobus'' – chapbook (Burning Eye Books) * 2017: ''To Sweeten Bitter'' – chapbook, Foreword by Margaret Busby (Outspoken Press)

Books

* 2018: ''The Perseverance'' ( Penned in the Margins, ) * 2020: ''Can Bears Ski?'' illus. Polly Dunbar (

Walker Books Walker Books is a British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase. In 1991, the success of Walker Books' ''Where's Wally?'' series enabled the company to expand into the American ma ...

, ) * 2021: ''All The Names Given'' ( Picador, ) * 2024: ''Signs, Music'' (Picador,

Radio documentaries

* 2021: ''Inventions In Sound'' (BBC Radio 4, prod. Eleanor McDowall) * 2022: ''Recaptive number 11,407'' (BBC World Service, prod. Ant Adeane)

Awards

* 2017: Geoffrey Dearmer Award from the Poetry Society for poem "Sound Machine" * 2017: inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship * 2019: Ted Hughes Award for ''The Perseverance'' * 2019: Rathbones Folio Prize for ''The Perseverance'' * 2019: Somerset Maugham Award for ''The Perseverance'' * 2019: Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award for ''The Perseverance'' * 2020: Fellowship of the

* 2021:

(MBE) * 2021: Ezra Jack Keats Book Award (Honouree) for ''Can Bears Ski?'' * 2021: Third Coast International Audio Festival, Best Documentary for ''Inventions in Sound'' (A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4) * 2022: Lucille Clifton Legacy Award (presented by Carolyn Forché)

References

External links

Official website

Raymond Antrobus
at The Deaf Poets Society * R. A. Villanueva
"'You cannot give your students what you do not give yourself:' A conversation with Raymond Antrobus, Jacob Sam-La Rose, and Toni Stuart"
''Gulf Coast'', 10 November 2015.
"Poetry in Aldeburgh: An Interview with Raymond Antrobus"
Poetry in Aldeburgh, Poetry School.
"Raymond Antrobus: 'When my dad read me a story I'd feel it through the vibrations in his body
''The Guardian'', Books That Made Me, 5 April 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Antrobus, Raymond Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British poets Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Black British writers British deaf people British male poets British writers with disabilities Deaf educators Deaf poets Deaf writers Educators of the deaf English people of Jamaican descent Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Members of the Order of the British Empire Schoolteachers from London Writers from Hackney Central