“I had to get to a point in my process from which I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought about it. I had to be able to constantly add risk, interest and innovation to the process without becoming fixated on how the output would be perceived. In fact, I had to take my mind off what the end product would be, never mind how it would be liked. This freed me up to make some of the best and lasting of my artistic work.”
Roger Robinson is a multi award-winning poet from Trinidad now living in Britain.
Roger Robinson in conversation with Gabriel Gbadamosi
Roger Robinson won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2019, and the following year, he spoke to Gabriel Gbadamosi about empathy in black writing, and migrant experience becoming rooted in words to keep us human.
Biography
Roger Robinson, a writer and performer, has won the T.S. Eliot Prize, RSL Ondaatje Prize, and Cholmondeley Award, and is Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. His poetry has been translated into five languages, and his book with Johny Pitts was named a Guardian Best Poetry Book of the Year.
He has judged major literary prizes, and his poem ‘A Portable Paradise’ is on the GCSE syllabus. His acclaimed workshops inspire writers worldwide.
