A Tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah with Raymond Antrobus in conversation with Shalini Sengupta

Discussing the impact that Benjamin Zephaniah has had upon his work, career and artistry; Raymond Antrobus discusses his influences for his poetry and his shift towards children’s literature and the release of his newest work: Terrible Horses.

Raymond Antrobus MBE FRSL was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements (Burning Eye, 2012) To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press, 2017), The Perseverance (Penned In The Margins / Tin House, 2018), All The Names Given (Picador / Tin House, 2021), Signs, Music (Picador / Tin House, 2024).

His individual poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Granta, Poetry Foundation, Lit Hub, London Review of Books, The Poetry Review, The Deaf Poets Society and elsewhere. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre.

Shalini Sengupta is a Lecturer in Diasporic and/or Black British Literatures at Newcastle University.