John Agard was born in Guyana, and worked for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle newspaper as sub-editor and feature writer before moving to England in 1977, where he became a touring lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute. A poet and a performer, in 1993 he was appointed Writer in Residence at the South Bank Centre, London, and became Poet in Residence at the BBC in London. In 1997 he was honoured with a Paul Hamlyn Award.