Read more
A Guardian Best Book of the Year Finalist for the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Costa Poetry Award "Exquisite." --The New York Times Book Review
"Brave, tender and generous. . . . A haunting study of what we can find in the silences of history when history is recognized as more than a noun, when recognized as something alive and kinetic." --Camonghne Felix, author of Build Yourself a Boat
About the author
Raymond Antrobus was born in Hackney, London, to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of
To Sweeten Bitter,
The Perseverance, and
All The Names Given. He was awarded the 2017 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize (judged by Ocean Vuong) for his poem 'Sound Machine'. In 2019 he became the first poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. Other accolades include the Ted Hughes Award, the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, and a Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award.
All The Names Given was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize, and several of his poems were added to the GCSE syllabus in 2022. His picture books for children are published by Walker Books (UK) and Candlewick Press (US). Antrobus is an advocate for several D/deaf charities, including DeafKidz International and the National Deaf Children's Society. He divides his time between England and New Orleans.
