Nichols, Grace

(1950- )

   Born in Georgetown, Guyana, she gained a diploma in communications at the University of Guyana, then worked as a freelance journalist and reporter. She migrated to the U.K. in 1977, where she still lives with her partner, the poet John Agard (see entry). Her first poetry collection, I Is a LongMemoried Woman (1983) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and the film adaptation won a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival, New York. The book was also dramatized for radio by the BBC. Her poetry collections for children include Come on Into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Some of her other poetry publications: The Fat Black Woman's Poems, 1984. No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock: A Collection of Caribbean Nursery Rhymes, 1991 (with John Agard). Asana and the Animals: A Book of Pet Poems, 1997. The Poet Cat, 2000. Mouth to Mouth, 2004 (with John Agard). Everybody Got a Gift: New and Selected Poems, 2005. Some of her poems: "Alligator," "Caribbean Woman Prayer," "Invitation," "Like a Beacon," "My Black Triangle," "Praise Song for My Mother."

   Sources: A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets: Barbara Burford, Gabriela Pearse, Grace Nichols, Jackie Kay. Grace Nichols, ed. Sheba, 1985. Anthology of TwentiethCentury British and Irish Poetry. Keith Tuma, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. British Council Arts (http://www.contemporarywriters.com). Erotic Literature: Twenty-four Centuries of Sensual Writing. Jane Mills, ed. HarperCollins, 1993. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Penguin Modern Poets, Book 9. John Burnside, Robert Crawford, and Kathleen Jamie, eds. Penguin Books, 1996. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New British Poetry, 1968-88. Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar and Ken Edwards, eds. Grafton Books, 1989. The Oxford Book of Animal Poems. Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark, eds. Oxford University Press, 1992. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.