Lemn Sissay

He has written collections of poetry and plays, and a critically acclaimed memoir, My Name is Why. He is Chancellor of the University of Manchester and has been made an Honorary Doctor by the universities of Manchester, Kent, Huddersfield and Brunel. He was the first poet commissioned to write for the 2012 London Olympics and was FA Cup poet in 2015.

His series of Landmark poems are visible on buildings in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. In 2019 he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, given to writers who, in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech, ‘cast an unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world’. He was appointed MBE for services to literature in 2014.