Linton Kwesi Johnson

Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, Linton Kwesi Johnson is an award winning poet, musician and sociologist. He moved to London in 1963, and went on to read Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Whilst still at school he joined the Black Panthers, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers. He was awarded a C Day Lewis Fellowship in 1977, and that same year, became the writer-in-residence for the London Borough of Lambeth. In 1974, his first collection of poetry – Voices of the Living and the Dead – was published by Race Today. In 1990 he received an award at the XIII Premo Internazionale Ultimo Novecento from the city of Pisa for his contribution to poetry and popular music. Linton Kwesi Johnson has toured the world from Japan to the new South Africa, from Europe to Brazil and his work has been translated into Italian and German.