Spirits of The Written Word

From a new West End musical about Bob Marley to Marcus Rashford’s Honorary Degree Ceremony, this is a snapshot of my life in October: Black history month.

CHRISTMAS DINNER teams are meeting across the country. Each one is organising a Christmas Dinner for up to fifty care leavers on Christmas Day:   Last year there were 19 dinners. This year there’s over 20.  Find out more here.  

This photo is of the first school assembly for SISSAY HOUSE at Darwen Academy in the Northwest of England. Go Sissay House! Now on to other matters.
The Corridor of Light festival from 21-23 Oct is a celebration of Manchester’s Oxford Road Corridor. Stretching south from Central Library in St Peter’s Square, this is the city’s innovation district: a brilliant constellation of people. My dawn poems at TAKK are in the corridor of light. So is University of Manchester.

(r) Helen Pankhurst (L) Colette Fagan (sat centre) Lemn Sissay

Foundation Day at University of Manchester was on October 6th . On behalf of the university and Professor Colette Fagan I gave my dear friend Dame Helen Pankhurst an Honorary Doctorate. The following day - National Poetry Day - our president Dame Nancy Rothwell presented Marcus Rashford MBE with his Honorary Degree. He is the youngest ever recipient of an honorary degree from The University of Manchester. I would normally preside over the event but I couldn’t because of a catastrophic communication failure which was entirely my fault and for which I am deeply sorry to my University and to Marcus Rashford himself. Subsequently I missed what would’ve been the highest honour of my seven year tenure as Chancellor of the greatest university in the world. I am truly gutted. But this is not the end. It is just the beginning. We are over the moon that Dr Marcus Rashford has been recognised for his astounding achievements Ours is the first UK university to set social responsibility as a core goal. Dr Marcus Rashford embodies this and is deserving of our highest honour.

Ironically on the same day I ended up at 10 Downing Street to celebrate the winners of POETRY BY HEART. Look closely at the photograph and you will notice that two of the young people are literally floating on thin air.

Also on National Poetry Day Edinburgh International Festival uploaded a poem of mine which they commissioned as a response to Gil Scott Heron’s Toast to the people.  You can view it here.

And later that same evening I read poems on stage at Woolwich Works. Let’s move on to other news like the Booker Prize and….

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL : On October 15th I will be interviewing Rachel Holmes at The Manchester Literature Festival about Holmes’s book Natural Born Rebel – Sylvia Pankhurst. And later on October 29th I will be in Coventry university to interview the Shortlisted authors  for THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021.

THE BIG READ Durham Book Festival and Library Service will  distribute 3,000 copies this month. I will be there, in Durham, on stage on Oct 15th with Kit De Waal.

CHILDREN’S BOOK: It’s called Don’t Ask The Dragon. It is finished and the publication date is  March 3rd 2022.   BOB MARLEY MUSICAL : I have written for the programme and brochure for Get up Stand Up:  Bob Marley The Musical which opens at The Lyric Theatre in The West End on October 20th.   

2022 QUICK READS announced that more than 35,000 donated copies will be distributed to food banks, local refugee groups & those supported by Homeless Shelters. I can officially announce that I will be Honorary Professor at University of Manchester.

Jesus College elects nine new Visiting Fellows. I can also share that I am now Visiting Fellow at Jesus College Cambridge.

AUDIO: GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman is released this month as an  audiobook starring David Tenant and Michael Sheen. I play a few characters in it. Presently I am recording a new radio series for BBC Radio 4 on The Spoken Word. And I guested on Museum of Curiosity presented by Holly Walsh and john lloyd.

ON SCREEN I was on the fifth episode of BAFTA winning ‘Alma’s Not Normal’ on BBC - 11th Oct. . Keep an eye out for (also BAFTA winning)  Life And Rhymes with Benjamin Zephaniah on SkyArts and also a new design programme – out soon – which features my friend Morag Myerscough in which I am a special guest. In other Screen news my documentary The Memory of Me is up for a Grierson Award on 10th November which is nice.

LIVE EVENTS:  There are all kinds of other live events than the ones I have told you about.  I will post details  on socials.

Otherwise I have a strong feeling I want to share. I am emerging from the pandemic different to how I entered. For starters I can’t fit into my suit. I have started cooking properly at home to cut down on Deliveroo waste. I can go outside and buy fresh.

We are blinking in the sunlight of a new day. I am trying to understand a little more. How to adjust to the light in light of the darkness of the past year? And one way, for me, is to look at the incredible people in my industry of authors and creatives: I did write a list of names right here and then realised that to list names would mean missing a name who wanted to be included or including a name of someone who didn’t want to be listed. So there are no names.

I have been a full time writer for nearly thirty years. And the isolation of the last year has taught me how easy it is to form opinion and bias on other authors. This is ego in action. ‘Let’s not talk about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think of me’.

The idea ‘what do you think of me?’ kills writers. In my best moment I can say I am working the best way I can. We are all incredibly different and all are contributing to the creative state of the world around us.

Our differences unite us. There is no one way to be. If we live a full life then we have made mistakes including judging others, like I have. Ego is a loss leader, a silent partner in the business of deconstruction. It is the gift that keeps on taking.

But when we connect there is a magic, a respect , a joy, a stillness. In making my radio 4 series on BBC radio 4 I am meeting and interviewing many different poets, most I have known for many years, some I haven’t, and I have come to realise through listening, just how incredible the industry is: We are writers. We are spirits of the written word. Thanks for reading. Have an ace day.

Roger McGough and me laughing at his home for a BBC radio 4 documentary which I am making