[Many thanks to Bocas Lit Fest for bringing this item to our attention.] Congratulations to acclaimed Guyanese poet Grace Nichols, winner of the 2026 The Royal Society of Literature Pioneer Prize. Her work will be celebrated at a special event at the British Library on Monday, March 1, 2027. Nichols’ tenth collection of poems, The Tracks of My Name, will be published by Bloodaxe on November 19, 2026.
We are thrilled to announce Grace Nichols is the winner of the 2026 RSL Pioneer Prize. The £10,000 award celebrates pioneering British women writers – across all genres – who have been trailblazers in their field, especially in the past when it was more difficult for women to have successful careers as writers. [. . .]
Acclaimed Guyanese poet Grace Nichols is the author of many books for adults and children and one of few poets widely studied on the GCSE syllabus for several decades. She has published numerous adult collections including the ever popular The Fat Black Woman’s Poems and I is a Long-Memoried Woman which won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize, both included in her 2010 Bloodaxe retrospective, I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems. She is a fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, 2021.
This year’s prize, which celebrates the work of a pioneer in the genre of poetry, was chaired by Ruth Borthwick, current Chair of English PEN and formerly Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Arvon. The other judges were poet, academic and editor Sarah Howe and Judith Palmer, Director of the Poetry Society since 2008.
Nichols said: “It was a wonderful surprise when Ruth Borthwick, one of the judges of the Pioneer Prize rang to say that I was the recipient of this year’s Prize. The word, Pioneer, is an interesting one and my mind immediately flashed to when, as young students at the University of Guyana (our university education was free) but we had to do a month’s ‘National Service’ before graduation. Dressed in military uniforms we served as ‘Young Pioneers’ in the forested region of Guyana, as part of the Government plan to develop a Hydro-project Scheme in our hinterland. Maybe that’s what we do as poets in the act of writing a poem or book, we’re like pioneers embarking on a new adventure with language in the forest of the imagination, finding a path true to our essential voice and vision, lighting things up from our own perspective. I am honoured and delighted to have the ‘RSL Pioneer Prize’ bestowed on me and grateful to poetry for all that it’s given me, as well as to the judges and my parents who made books a part of our lives.”
Nichols’ upcoming book, The Tracks of My Name, will be published by Bloodaxe on 19 November 2026 and is her 10th collection of adult poems. It is a Poetry Book Society Choice and Nichols will appear in the PBS Autumn Showcase in Newcastle on 11 November.
Chair of judges Ruth Borthwick said: “Grace Nichols is one of our most important contemporary poets. Ever since I is a Long Memoried Woman opened us up to her imagination forty-three years ago Grace has, like a pioneering plant, colonised new territory in modern Britain, and crafted her own poetic language – an earthy mix of Creole and standard English. Her range is boundless. She can employ wry humour to comment on the political situation just as skilfully as she can write playful rhyme and rap for children. Grace showed the way for generations of poets from the diaspora to make the cultural connections between the Caribbean and Britain. She embodies the spirit of the RSL Pioneer Prize and we are proud to honour her.”
Judge Sarah Howe said: “Grace Nichols is a legend, a trailblazer in the truest sense. Her work spans continents and traditions, alive to orality and shapely on the page, light and weighty at once. Her work blends the rhythms and stories of her Caribbean heritage with a unique vision of modern Britain. Her poems for children are no less to be treasured, and her work has helped open up the joy of poetry to generations of young people. She has opened many doors, creating space for other writers through her long career.”
Fellow judge Judith Palmer said: “What a joy to be able to recognise a poet, who has herself brought joy to so many. Thank you, Grace Nichols for everything you’ve done over your energetic career to inspire readers and writers of all ages. Even when tackling difficult subjects, Grace’s poetry has a warmth and a lightness of touch which buoys you up and sparks kinship. She was probably the first poet who really lifted poetry off the page for me, and over the decades I’ve seen her cast her spell over successive generations; a modest, sure-footed trailblazer who has succeeded in making so many more people feel that poetry is a place where they too might belong.”
The prize was founded last year by RSL President Emerita Bernardine Evaristo, who generously donated the £100,000 cash prize from her Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award to fund the prize over ten years. This special one-off honour marked the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and celebrated Evaristo’s own body of work, her transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices across the cultural landscape. [. . .]
For full article, see https://rsliterature.org/2026-rsl-pioneer-prize-announced/
Also see https://newsroom.gy/2026/11/04/guyana-born-poet-grace-nichols-wins-10000-pioneer-prize/
[Many thanks to Bocas Lit Fest for bringing this item to our attention.] Congratulations to acclaimed Guyanese poet Grace Nichols, winner of the 2026 The Royal Society of Literature Pioneer Prize. Her work will be celebrated at a special event at the British Library on Monday, March 1, 2027. Nichols’ tenth collection of poems, The Tracks
