Grace Nichols: Poetry Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols (born 1950) is a Guyanese poet who moved to Britain in 1977, before which she worked as a teacher and journalist in Guyana. Her first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. In December 2021, she was announced as winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, and lived in a small village on the country's coast[1] until her family moved to the city when she was eight years old.[2] She took a Diploma in Communications from the University of Guyana, and subsequently worked as a teacher (1967–70), as a journalist and in government informations services,[3] before she migrated to the United Kingdom in 1977.[4] Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.

Her first collection of poetry, I is a Long-Memoried Woman won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize.[1] A film adaptation subsequently won a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York, and the book was dramatised for BBC radio.[1] Her novel for adults, Whole of a Morning Sky, was published in 1986. In 1992, her work featured in the anthology Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby).[3]

Nichols has published several further books of poetry, including in 2006 volume of new and selected poems, Startling the Flying Fish, and her books for children encompass collections of short stories and poetry anthologies. Her poetry is featured in the AQA, WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee), and Edexcel English/English Literature IGCSE anthologies – meaning that many GCSE students in the UK have studied her work. Her religion is Christianity after she was influenced by the UK's many religions and multi-cultural society.

Anthologise — annual poetry competition for schools

In 2011 Nichols was a member of the first ever judging panel for a new schools poetry competition named "Anthologise", spearheaded by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.[5] School students aged 11–18 from around the UK were invited to create and submit their own anthologies of published poetry. The first ever winners of Anthologise were the sixth-form pupils of Monkton Combe School, Bath, with their anthology titled The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead.[5]

Nichols has been the recipient of several awards for her poetry, beginning with the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983, for I is a Long Memoried Woman, and her work is on several GCSE syllabuses.[6]

In 2021, Nichols was the recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, on the basis of her body of work, chosen by a committee chaired by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.[7][8]

She lives in Lewes, East Sussex,[3] with her partner, the Guyanese poet John Agard.[4]

Nichols has five sisters and one brother, whose names have not been publicly disclosed. Nichols also immigrated to the United Kingdom due to the political and economic climate in Guyana. Her husband also influenced her move.[9]

• I is a Long-Memoried Woman, London: Karnak House, 1983 to 1984
• The Fat Black Woman's Poems, London: Virago Press, 1984
• A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets (Barbara Burford, Gabriela Pearse, Grace Nichols, Jackie Kay), London: Sheba, 1985
• Whole of a Morning Sky (novel), London: Virago Press, 1986
• Over the River, 1986
• Hurricane Hits England, 1987
• Come into my Tropical Garden (poems), 1988
• Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (poems), 1989
• Sunris (poems), London: Virago, 1996
• Startling the Flying Fish, 2006
• Picasso, I Want My Face Back, Bloodaxe Books, 2009
• I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2010
• Island Man
• The Insomnia Poems, 2017
• Passport to Here and There, Bloodaxe, 2020

• Old Canecutter at Airport, 2019 from the collection, Startling the Flying Fish (2006).[10]
• Humming With History, from the collection, I is a Long-Memoried Women (1983-1984).[11]
• Love Act from the collection, from the collection, I Have Crossed an Ocean (2010).
• Tea with Demerara Sugar; Battle, from the collection, Passport to Here and There (2020).[12]

Grace Nichols’ poetry examines how history and identity are carried through the everyday experiences of Caribbean women. One of the major themes in her work is historical memory, which she often expresses through the physical body. Nichols treats the body as a kind of “living archive,” [13] a place where the effects of colonialism and the shaping of Caribbean identity are remembered and held. This idea appears strongly in The Fat Black Woman’s Poems, where Nichols uses images of the body to challenge erasure and to affirm the presence and visibility of Black women’s confidence.

Language also plays an important role in Nichols’ writing. Creole speech patterns and the rhythms of oral storytelling is used as a way for Caribbean women to reclaim their voices. Language becomes a form of resistance in Nichols’ work, allowing her poetry to honor the past while speaking to contemporary experiences. Together, these themes embodiment, memory, and the power of language form a core part of Nichols’ contribution to Caribbean literature. [13]

• 1983: Commonwealth Poetry Prize (for I is a Long Memoried Woman)
• 1986: Arts Council Writers' Award
• 1996: Guyana Poetry Prize (for Sunris)
• 2000: Cholmondeley Award
• 2007: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature[14]
• 2008: Guyana Poetry Award Never live unloved
• 2021: Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry

1. ^ a b c "Grace Nichols". Literature | British Council. British Council. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
2. ^ Grace Nichols profile at Curtis Brown.
3. ^ a b c Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present, London: Vintage, 1993, p. 796.
4. ^ a b Dawes, Kwame Senu Neville (2001). Talk yuh talk: interviews with Anglophone Caribbean poets. University of Virginia Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780813919461. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
5. ^ a b "Anthologise - A national poetry anthology competition", Picador, 14 July 2011.
6. ^ Knight, Lucy (10 December 2021). "Grace Nichols' 'pioneering voice' wins her Queen's gold medal for poetry". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
7. ^ "The Queen's Medal for Poetry 2021". The Royal Family. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
8. ^ Bayley, Sian (10 December 2021). "Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry awarded to Nichols". The Bookseller. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
9. ^ Lowe, Hannah (3 April 2018). "Inside the Frame: Women Writers and the Windrush Legacy: Interviews with Grace Nichols, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Jay Bernard". Wasafiri. 33 (2): 3–9. doi:10.1080/02690055.2018.1431094. ISSN 0269-0055.
10. ^ Nichols, Grace (3 April 2018). "Old Cane-Cutter at Airport". Wasafiri. 33 (2): 13–13. doi:10.1080/02690055.2018.1431098. ISSN 0269-0055.
11. ^ Nichols, Grace (March 2025). "Humming With History". Callaloo. 43 (1): 57–58. doi:10.1353/cal.2025.a962546. ISSN 1080-6512.
12. ^ Nichols, Grace (2 October 2019). "Tea with Demerara Sugar; Battle". Wasafiri. 34 (4): 126–127. doi:10.1080/02690055.2019.1635796. ISSN 0269-0055.
13. ^ a b Easton, Alison (March 1994). "The body as history and 'writing the body': The example of grace nichols". Journal of Gender Studies. 3 (1): 55–67. doi:10.1080/09589236.1994.9960552. ISSN 0958-9236.
14. ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.

• "Interview with Grace Nichols", The English Association.

• "Grace Nichols", "Writers and Their Work" Series, Sarah Lawson Welsh (Northcote Press & the British Council; 2007)