John Agard FRSL (born 21 June 1949) is a Guyanese-born British playwright, poet and children's writer. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2021.
Biography Agard was born in British Guiana (now Guyana), and grew up in Georgetown. He loved to listen to cricket commentary on the radio and began making up his own, which led to a love of language. He went on to study English, French and Latin at A-Level, writing his first published poetry when he was in the sixth form, and left school in 1967. He taught the languages he had studied and worked in a local library. He was also a sub-editor and feature writer for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle, publishing two books while he was still in Guyana.
His father (Ted) settled in London and in 1977 Agard moved to Britain with his partner Grace Nichols, settling in Ironbridge, Shropshire. He worked for the Commonwealth Institute and the BBC in London.
His awards included the 1997 Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry, the Cholmondeley Award in 2004 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012. In November 2021 he became the first poet to be awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Agard was poet-in-residence at the National Maritime Museum in 2008. His poems "Half Caste" and "Checking Out Me History" have been featured in the Edexcel and AQA English GCSE anthologies respectively, meaning that many students (aged 13–16) have studied his work for their GCSE English qualifications. In the AQA English Literature Paper 2 which took place on 19 May 2026, students studying the Power & Conflict poetry anthology were asked to compare how Agard's poem 'Checking Out Me History' and 1 other poem from the cluster present strong emotions for 30 marks.
Archival literary records consisting of "letters and proofs relating to the published poetry works of John Agard" are held at Newcastle University Special Collections, in the Bloodaxe Books Archive.
Agard lives in Lewes, East Sussex, with his partner, the Guyanese poet Grace Nichols.
Bibliography
Listen Mr Oxford Don, 1967 Shoot Me With Flowers. Georgetown, Guyana, 1974 Letters for Lettie, and Other Stories. Bodley Head, 1978 Dig Away Two-Hole Tim. Bodley Head, 1981 Man to Pan. Casa de las Américas (Cuba), 1982 I Din Do Nuttin, and Other Poems. Bodley Head, 1982 Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses. Greenheart, 1983 Livingroom. Black Ink, 1983 Mangoes and Bullets: Selected and New Poems 1972–84. Pluto Press, 1985 Say It Again, Granny!. Bodley Head, 1986 Lend Me Your Wings. Hodder & Stoughton, 1998 Go Noah Go!. Hodder & Stoughton, 1990 Laughter is an Egg. Viking, 1990 The Calypso Alphabet. Collins, 1990 No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock (with Grace Nichols). Viking, 1991 The Emperor's Dan-dan. Hodder & Stoughton, 1992 A Stone's Throw from Embankment: The South Bank Collection. Royal Festival Hall, 1993 The Great Snakeskin. Ginn, 1993 Grandfather's Old Bruk-a-Down Car. Bodley Head, 1994 Oriki and the Monster Who Hated Balloons. Longman, 1994 The Monster Who Loved Cameras. Longman, 1994 The Monster Who Loved Telephones. Longman, 1994 The Monster Who Loved Toothbrushes. Longman, 1994 Eat a Poem, Wear a Poem. Heinemann Young Books, 1995 Get Back, Pimple!. Viking, 1996 We Animals Would Like a Word With You. Bodley Head, 1996 From the Devil's Pulpit. Bloodaxe, 1997 Brer Rabbit: The Great Tug-o-war. Bodley Head, 1998 Points of View with Professor Peekabo. Bodley Head, 2000 Weblines. Bloodaxe, 2000 Come Back to Me My Boomerang (with Lydia Monks). Orchard, 2001 Einstein, The Girl Who Hated Maths. Hodder Children's Books, 2002 Number Parade: Number Poems from 0–100 (with Jackie Kay, Grace Nichols, Nick Toczek and Mike Rosen). LDA, 2002 Hello H2O. Hodder Children's Books, 2003 From Mouth to Mouth (with Grace Nichols; illustrated by Annabel Wright). Walker, 2004 Baby Poems. Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2005 Half-Caste. Hodder & Stoughton, 2005 Butter-Finger (with Bob Cattell, illustrated by Pam Smy). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2006 We Brits. Bloodaxe, 2006 Wriggle Piggy Toes (with Jenny Bent). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2006 Shine On, Butter-Finger (with Bob Cattell, illustrated by Pam Smy). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2007 Checking Out Me History, 2007 The Young Inferno (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008 Tiger Dead! Tiger Dead!: Stories from the Caribbean (with Grace Nichols, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Collins Educational, 2008 Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (with DVD). Bloodaxe, 2009. Clever Backbone.Bloodaxe, 2009 The Young Inferno (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2009 Goldilocks on CCTV (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011 Travel Light Travel Dark. Bloodaxe, 2013. The Rainmaker Danced (illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura). Hodder Children's Books, 2017. The Coming of the Little Green Man, 2018 Shona, the Word Detective, 2018 Books Make Good Pets, 2020 Inspector Dreadlock Holmes and Other Stories, 2022
As editor Life Doesn't Frighten Me at All. Heinemann, 1989 A Caribbean Dozen (co-edited with Grace Nichols). Walker Books, 1994 Poems in My Earphone. Longman, 1995 Why is the Sky?. Faber and Faber, 1996 A Child's Year of Stories and Poems (with Michael Rosen and Robert Frost). Viking Children's Books, 2000 Hello New!: New Poems for a New Century. Orchard, 2000 Under the Moon and Over the Sea (co-editor with Grace Nichols). Walker Books, 2002
Awards 1982: Casa de las Américas Prize (Cuba) for Man to Pan 1987: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (shortlist) for Lend Me Your Wings 1995: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award) (6–8 years category) for We Animals Would Like a Word With You 1997: Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry 2004: Cholmondeley Award 2007: British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year (shortlist) for We Brits 2007: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 2009: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education poetry award for The Young Inferno. 2012: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry"Poet John Agard is selected for Queen's poetry medal". BBC News (20 December 2012). Retrieved 15 February 2013. 2021: BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award
References
External links Shoot Me with Flowers, The British Library, 23 November 2021 – Asgard's first book of poems acquired for the British Library's collection "John Agard: Making Waves at the BBC". The Poetry Society. (includes extensive bibliography) John Agard at the National Maritime Museum An example of John Agard reading his poetry – .