Roger Robinson is a poet, short story writer, musician and educator who has taught and performed worldwide. Born in Hackney, Robinson spent his formative years in Trinidad before returning to the UK aged 19. He emerged on the London poetry scene in the 1990s, while teaching poetry to children in school workshops and performing at various events and festivals. Committed to being an artist, Robinson received mentoring from writers including Bernardine Evaristo, Kwame Dawes, and Nii Ayikwei Parkes. His first pamphlets Suitcase (2004) and Suckle (2009) brought him some success and commissions as did his book of short stories Adventures in 3D (2002). Robinson was part of the first cohort of poets on The Complete Works programme. He has been published in a number of prominent anthologies, including The Fire People, Modern Love, Freedom, The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain and Out of Bounds: British Black and Asian Poets. His other books include The Butterfly Hotel (Peepal Tree Press, 2013), and A Portable Paradise (Peepal Tree Press, 2019), the latter of which won both the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2019 and the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize in 2020 for a distinguished work evoking the spirit of a place – in this instance, post-Windrush Britain.
