James Berry Biography

British poet, born in Boston, Jamaica; he arrived in London in 1948. After years of working as a telegraphist (1951–77), he became a full-time writer. He conducts writing workshops at comprehensive schools and has taken an active interest in multicultural education. Rooted in Jamaican proverbs and folklore, and imbued with avuncular wisdom, many of his poems are in Creole dialect, or Nation Language, as he calls it, following Edward Kamau Brathwaite. His collections include Fractured Circles (1979), Lucy's Letter and Loving (1982), Chain of Days (1985), and Hot Earth, Cold Earth (1995). ‘Fantasy of an African Boy’ won the British National Poetry Competition in 1981. He has published several books for children, including Anancy-Spiderman (1989) and The Future-Telling Lady (1991), collections of short stories. He has also edited pioneering anthologies of poems by black British writers including Bluefoot Traveller (1976), Dance to a Different Drum (1983, a Brixton Festival anthology), and News for Babylon (1984). He was awarded on OBE in 1990. See also Jazz Poetry and Dub poetry.