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Lemn Sissay MBE is a British author and broadcaster.

Life and work[link]

Early years[link]

He was born in Billinge, near Wigan, Lancashire to Ethiopian and Eritrean parents. Sissay's mother had come from Ethiopia to the UK in 1967.^[1] She fostered her son and returned to Africa. He was adopted by a family in the north of England and was with them for 11 years. He has commented "My parents were very religious. They told me that they had not decided to take me in, rather that it was God that had decided it for them... To them I had become a Trojan horse that symbolised evil. They said that I was bringing evil into their home, that there was this mighty struggle inside me and that God was losing."^[1] He has written that he felt lost, as though he was growing up in an alien environment. He attributes this to the fact that the family was white and he didn't meet many black people until he was an adult.^[1] When he was 11, Sissay was put into care. He adoptive family told him that they would cease all contact from the point.^[1] From 11 to 17 he lived in various children's homes in Lancashire.

Extract from "The Gilt of Cain" a poem by Sissay, near Tower Hill, London.

At eighteen years old he moved from Atherton, Greater Manchester, to the city of Manchester. By the age of nineteen he was a literature development worker at Commonword, a community publishing cooperative in Manchester.

He met his birth mother when he was 21, after a long search. She was working for UN in the Gambia.^[1] By the age of 32 he found his whole birth family, documenting the journey.

Career[link]

Sissay released his first book of poetry in 1988 at the age of 21 and from the age of 24 until the present day he has been a full time writer, performing internationally. In 1995, he made the BBC documentary Internal Flight about his life. His 2005 drama Something Dark deals with his search for his family, and was adapted for BBC Radio 3 in 2006 winning the RIMA award (Race in the Media award given from the UK Commission for Racial Equality).

Sissay's television appearances include The South Bank Show and the BBC’s series Grumpy Old Men. As a radio broadcaster Sissay makes documentaries for the BBC. He is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live which in 2008 was nominated for two Sony Awards. He also contributes to the BBC's Book Panel. In 2007 he was appointed as artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London where he remains. ^[2]

Sissay was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.^[3]

Books[link]

• Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist. Bogle L'Ouverture, 1988. ISBN 9780904521443.
• Rebel Without Applause. Bloodaxe Books, 1992 (Canongate Books, 2000). ISBN 9781841950013.
• Morning Breaks in the Elevator. Canongate Books, 1999. ISBN 9781847677433.
• The Fire People (ed). Payback Press, 1998. ISBN 9780862417390.
• The Emperor’s Watchmaker. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2001. ISBN 9780747547556.
• Listener. Canongate Books, 2008. ISBN 9781841958958.
• Hidden Gems (Deirdre Osborne ed, Sissay contributed Something Dark). Oberon Books, 2008. ISBN 9781840028430.
• Single Poet Collection. Pan Macmillan, 2009. ISBN 9780330415910.

Audiobook:

• Spoken-Works. 57 Productions, 1999. ISBN 9781899021079.

Plays[link]

Don't Look Down (1993) Chaos by Design (1994) Storm (2002) Something Dark (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Web Site
• British Council profile
• BBC 13 October 2006. "Growing up in an alien environment"
• "Intelligence Squared" "The voice at the back of the mind". (Video, 6 mins)
• Audio recordings. Discogs.
• Badilisha Poetry X-Change contributions