The poet on the power of abstract art, Shakespeare in British Sign Language and the ‘articulated rage’ of James Baldwin
The British poet and educator Raymond Antrobus was born in east London in 1986. He gained an MA in spoken word education from Goldsmiths, University of London and published his first poetry pamphlet in 2012. His 2018 book The Perseverance won both the Ted Hughes award and the Rathbones Folio prize. He has also published two children’s picture books, Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses. Antrobus lives in Margate with his wife, Tabitha, a photographer and art conservator, and their son. His new poetry collection Signs, Music, exploring masculinity, race, deafness and fatherhood, is published by Picador on 12 September.