Facts about Grace Nichols will inform you about a Guyanese poet which was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950. However, she moved and lived in the UK since 1977. I is a Long-Memoried Woman is her first poetry collection for adults which won the Common wealth Poetry Prize. It was also dramatised for film and radio. There are still many information that will be explained below.

Facts about Grace Nichols 1: Childhood

Nichols was interested in poetry since childhood. It was because her father was a headmaster. That’s why he had books by poets, including Shakespeare, Keats, and more. Besides, her father often told about poems and made Nichols moved by the beauty of the words.

Facts about Grace Nichols 2: Married

Grace married with John Agard and live in Lewes, Sussex, England. John Agard was born on June 21,1949 in British Guiana. Besides, he is also known as the famous Afro Guyanese poet, playwright and children writers.

Facts about Grace Nichols 3: Before famous

Grace Nichols had a degree in communications from the University of Guyana. After that, he worked as a teacher in 1967 until 1970. Besides, she also worked as a journalist and in government information services before moved to the United Kingdom in 1977.

Facts about Grace Nichols 4: Anthologise poetry competition for schools

Nichols ever became a judge on the panel of the Anthologise poetry competition in 2011 which was led by Carol-Ann Duffy. It invited the participants to create and submit their own anthologies of published poetry. The participants of the competition are school students aged 11–18. They are from around the UK.

Facts about Grace Nichols 5: Awards

Grace Nichols won in many awards, including Commonwealth Poetry Prize for I is a Long Memoried Woman (1983), Arts Council Writers’ Award (1986), Guyana Poetry Prize for Sunris (1996), Cholmondeley Award (2000), Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2007), and Guyana Poetry Award Never live unloved (2008).

Facts about Grace Nichols 6: Family

Grace Nicols is the fifth of seven children. He has five sisters and one brother. Whereas her parents worked as a headmaster and a piano teacher.

Facts about Grace Nichols 7: Read aloud

Grace Nichols like to read her poems aloud. It is because she can get sense of the different sounds and music of the words. Besides, she also can stay in tune with the feeling of orality.

Facts about Grace Nichols 8: Her adult books of poetry collections

As we know that I is a Long Memoried Woman is Grace’s first poetry. However, there are still many poetry collections of her, including The Fat Black Woman’s Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), Sunris (1996), and Startling the Flying Fish (2006). All of them were published by Virago.

Facts about Grace Nichols 9: Her latest poetry collections

I Want My Face Back (2009), I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010) are the latest poetry collections of Nichols. They were published by Bloodaxe Books. Whereas The Insomnia Poems was published in February 2017.

Facts about Grace Nichols 10: Her children’s books of poetry

Grace Nichols also writes books of poetry for children, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994), The Poet Cat (Bloomsbury), Sun-Time, Snow-Time, Everybody Got A Gift (2005), Paint Me A Poem (A&C Black), and Cosmic Disco was published by Frances Lincoln in 2013. Her books was inspired by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends.

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