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Poets

POET ADVISORS

Photo of Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile (Bra Willie), South African Poet LaureateWe are honoured to have some leading international poets as advisors for our project, and the Poets Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy (UK) and Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile (South Africa), as our patrons.

Sir Andrew Motion studied at University College, Oxford and is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a notable poet, biographer, essayist and critic, and a renowned writer of memoirs. He was Poet Laureate from 1999–2009, during which he set up many initiatives including the online Poetry Archive with Richard Carrington. He served as Chair of the Man Booker Prize in 2010. The Cinder Path is published by Faber.

Olive Senior was born and brought up in Jamaica (to which she regularly returns) and studied at Carleton University, Ottowa. She now lives in Toronto, Canada. Recognised internationally as a distinguished, award-winning poet, she is also esteemed as a writer of short stories, a journalist, journal editor, scholar and tutor of creative writing. Gardening in the Tropics is one of her most highly regarded collections.


Andrew MotionThe Poetry Archive has already embraced English language poetry from Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean - and been tremendously enriched by them; the prospect of including English Language poets from South Africa is deeply exciting; it will be a consolidation and a diversification at one and the same time.”   Andrew Motion

Photo of Olive Senior"Poetry matters because it is a tool for helping us to discover who we are. As individuals, ..., as citizens of the world. All praise to this initiative that aims to free poetry from its tag as ‘boring subject’ and relocate it in the hearts and minds of teachers and students as a lifelong gift to be savoured and treasured." Olive Senior