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Festival Appearances -

Hexham Book Festival, 29th April to 3rd May, 2009

Biography Poet, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958. He grew up in Jamaica and the Handsworth district of Birmingham, England, leaving school at 14. He moved to London in 1979 and published his first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980. He has been Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool and Creative Artist in Residence at Cambridge University, and was a candidate for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.

He holds an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from the University of North London (1998), was made a Doctor of Letters by the University of Central England (1999), and a Doctor of the University by the University of Staffordshire (2002). In 1998, he was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education to advise on the place of music and art in the National Curriculum and in 1988 Ealing Hospital in London named a ward after him.
His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system. Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories, contained poetry and travelogue.

His other poetry collections include two books written for children: Talking Turkeys (1994) and Funky Chickens (1996). He has also written novels for teenagers: Face (1999), described by the author as a story of 'facial discrimination'; Refugee Boy (2001), the story of a young boy, Alem, fleeing the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; Gangsta Rap (2004); and Teacher's Dead (2007).

In addition to his published writing, Benjamin Zephaniah has produced numerous music recordings, including Us and Dem (1990) and Belly of de Beast (1996), and has also appeared as an actor in several television and film productions, including appearing as Moses in the film Farendg (1990). His first television play, Dread Poets Society, was first screened by the BBC in 1991. His play Hurricane Dub was one of the winners of the BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998, and his stage plays have been performed at the Riverside Studios in London, at the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival and on television. His radio play Listen to Your Parents, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000, won the Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award and has been adapted for the stage, first performed by Roundabout, Nottingham Playhouse's Theatre in Education Company, in September 2002.

Many of the poems in Too Black, Too Strong (2001) were inspired by his tenure as Poet in Residence at the chambers of London barrister Michael Mansfield QC and by his attendance at both the inquiry into the 'Bloody Sunday' shootings and the inquiry into the death of Ricky Reel, an Asian student found dead in the Thames. Two of his most recent books are We Are Britain! (2002), a collection of poems celebrating cultural diversity in Britain, and Chambers Primary Rhyming Dictionary (2004).

He has recently been awarded further honorary doctorates by London South Bank University, the University of Exeter and the University of Westminster.

Bibliography

Pen Rhythm   Page One Books, 1980

The Dread Affair: Collected Poems   Arena, 1985

Black Plays : Two   (includes 'Job Rocking' by Benjamin Zephaniah)   Methuen, 1987

Inna Liverpool   Africa Arts Collective, 1988

Rasta Time in Palestine   Shakti, 1990

City Psalms   Bloodaxe, 1992

Out of the Night: Writings from Death Row   (editor with Marie Mulvey Roberts)   New Clarion Press, 1994

Talking Turkeys   Viking, 1994

Funky Chickens   Viking, 1996

Propa Propaganda   Bloodaxe, 1996

School's Out: Poems Not for School   AK Press, 1997

Face   Bloomsbury, 1999

The Bloomsbury Book of Love Poems   (editor)   Bloomsbury, 1999

A Little Book of Vegan Poems   A. K. Press, 2000

Wicked World   Puffin, 2000

Refugee Boy   Bloomsbury, 2001

Too Black, Too Strong   Bloodaxe, 2001

We Are Britain!   (with photographs by Prodeepta Das)   Frances Lincoln, 2002

Chambers Primary Rhyming Dictionary   Chambers, 2004

Gangsta Rap   Bloomsbury, 2004

Prizes and awards

1988   BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award   Hurricane Dub

2001   Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award   Listen to Your Parents

2002   Portsmouth Book Award (Longer Novel category)   Refugee Boy

2005   British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year   (shortlist)

2006   Manchester Book Award   (shortlist)   Gangsta Rap

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