John Agard was born on June 21, 1949 in Guyana (a British colony at the time), which is located on the coast of Northeast South America between Suriname, Brazil, and Venezuela. He and his family had lived and grew under British colonialism until 1966 when Guyana gained independence from England.

When he was 16, he had begun writing poems which were published in his school magazine. After Guyana’s independence in 1967, Agard went to work as a teacher of the three subjects he had most enjoyed as a student: English, French, and Latin. He had also maintained a position as a sub-editor for a local newspaper until his immigration. Soon after, he had his first two books published in Guyana, and found interest in settling halfway around the world in London, England. His most persuasive reason for leaving Guyana was because his father had settled in London some years before.

Agard moved to London in 1977 and kept writing as a poet, author, and playwright. Since his British settlement, Agard has been a great contributor to the BBC community. He was a participant of the BBC’s 50th anniversary of the first major wave of West Indians. Also, he had toured with the Commonwealth Institute, spoke at almost 2000 different school in the UK, promoted and incited interest in Caribbean Literature and English colonial history. In addition to the BBC community, he is a common contributor and member of The Poetry Society through the BBC. Throughout his years in writing, he has also made public appearances to perform and read selected poems in his unique calypso dialect. In his most recent appearance he had performed Half-Caste in 2005.

Agard has obtained several awards from all over the world for his writing including two Nestle Smarties Book Prizes (1982, 1995), the Guyana Prize for his Children’s literature, and Casa de las Americas Prize in Cuba for his poetry.

John Agard is married to co-author, co-poet Grace Nichols and are both still writing together in their residence in Sussex, England.

Sources

Forbes, Peter. “John Agard.”  Contemporary Authors.  2002.  British Arts Council.  30 March 2007 <www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth162>.

“John Agard.” Jubilee Books Ltd. 2002. 30 March 2007. <http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/authors/john_agard/agard.asp>.

“John Agard.” 2007. Wikipedia. 30 March 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Agard>

Kerkhoff, Ingrid. “Biographical Information.” University of Bremen. 30 March 2007. <http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/DubPoetry/Agard/AgardBio.html>

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