Award-winning broadcaster and writer Lemn Sissay will be among those recognized with royal titles at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
The 54-year-old, official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, will receive an OBE for literary and charitable services.
Mr. Sissay, whose mother came to the UK from Ethiopia to conceive him in 1966, spent his early life in foster homes and children’s homes, an experience already evident in his literary work.
During his career, he published 9 books of his own, staged 7 plays and 4 other radio plays.
Poet Lemn Sissay in Downing Street on National Poetry Day last year (James Manning/PA)
Among his achievements is the MBE, which he received in 2010 and was elected chancellor of the University of Manchester in 2015.
While in office, he established an ongoing plan to boost the number of black law students in 2017.
He also became a board member of the Foundling Museum, which tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for at-risk children.
In 2019, he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize for authors with a “comfortable, unchanging” view of the world.
Mr. Sissay has made numerous television appearances, including on the Southbank Show and BBC shows Grumpy Old Men, Winter Walks, and Have I Got News For You, as well as being a regular contributor to Saturday’s show. BBC Radio 4’s Live.
Others recognized include novelist Irenosen Okojie of Nigerian origin but living in London, who will receive an MBE for literary services.
Her first novel, Butterfly Fish, won the Betty Trask Award in 2016, while her story Grace Jones was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2020 – the award for story Best short by an African writer in English.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/writer-and-broadcaster-lemn-sissay-to-receive-obe-at-windsor-castle-41452269.html Writer and broadcaster Lemn Sissay receives OBE at Windsor Castle