Beck Series: Poet Roger Robinson

The Beck Series welcomes poet and Roger Robinson.

Robinson is a writer who has performed worldwide. He is the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019, RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 and RSL Fellow. Robinson has been chosen by Decibel & Arts Council England as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black-British writing canon & his work has been featured in a number of prominent anthologies, including The Forward Book Of Poetry 2024, Mapping The Future – The Complete Works Poets, Poetry Unbound – 50 Poems To Open Your World, The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, The Fire People and Bloodaxes’ Out of Bounds: British Black and Asian Poets. He has received commissions from The National Trust, London Open House, BBC, Tate, The National Portrait Gallery, V&A, INIVA, MK Gallery and Theatre Royal Stratford East, where he was also associate artist. He is an alumni of The Complete Works, a national mentorship programme founded by Bernadine Evaristo MBE. 

Robinson has sat on the judging panel of some of the world’s most prestigious writing prizes, including the Folio Prize, BOCAS Lit Fest, Forward Prize, Bridport Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize & RSL Ondaatje Prize. His poem A Portable Paradise features on the UK syllabus for GCSE English Literature. 

His workshops have been shortlisted for the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums & Galleries & were also part of the Barbicans’ Webby award winning Can I Have A Word. His book The Butterfly Hotel was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Poetry Prize, The Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize & highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. Robinson has toured extensively with the British Council & is a co-founder of both Spoke Lab & the global writing collective Malika’s Kitchen.