Raymond Antrobus

Raymond Antrobus

Raymond Antrobus (b. 1986, London) has been writing poetry for as long as he can remember. ‘I had permission to engage with it without the baggage that many people in the UK have, where poetry is solely associated with some negative experiences in English lessons at school’, he writes. ‘I associate it with family and songs and solitude.’

Antrobus is a freelance teacher, and one of the first six graduates of Goldsmiths’ MA in Spoken Word Education, as well as one of the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows, and the first Poet in Residence at the London Book Fair. His advice for younger poets is to be bold in their dislikes: ‘There is no holy grail of poetry, no matter what a school curriculum or University reading list tells you. Trust the things you connect with and grow from there.’

Forward Prizes History:

• 2019 Forward Prizes for Best First Collection, shortlisted for The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins)