Originally Posted: Dec 20, 2021
(Royal UK Press Release) The Queen has approved the award of Her Majesty’s Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2021 to Grace Nichols.
The Gold Medal for Poetry was established by King George V in 1933 at the suggestion of the then Poet Laureate, John Masefield, and is awarded for excellence in poetry. Each year’s recipient is from the United Kingdom or a Commonwealth Realm.
In my own work I’ve celebrated my Guyanese/Caribbean/South American heritage in relation to the English traditions we inherited as a former British colony. To poetry and the English language that I love, I’ve brought the registers of my own Caribbean tongue.”
Grace Nichols
The Poetry Medal Committee unanimously recommended Grace Nichols as this year’s recipient on the basis of her body of work, in particular her first collection of poetry I Is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), prose and several books for younger readers. The committee is chaired by the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, who received The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry for 2018.
Grace Nichols is a Guyanese poet who moved to Britain at the age of 27. Her first collection of poetry I Is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Source: Caricom Today
