Guyanese-British Poet Grace Nichols Wins £10,000 Literary Prize
LONDON (International Desk) – Guyana-born British poet Grace Nichols has won the 2026 RSL Pioneer Prize from the Royal Society of Literature, which comes with £10,000.The prize honours women writers who made their mark after the age of 60 in a literary world where opportunities for women, especially those from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds,…
LONDON (International Desk) – Guyana-born British poet Grace Nichols has won the 2026 RSL Pioneer Prize from the Royal Society of Literature, which comes with £10,000.
The prize honours women writers who made their mark after the age of 60 in a literary world where opportunities for women, especially those from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, were limited.
Nichols, 76, moved from Guyana to Britain in 1977. Her poetry draws on Caribbean oral traditions, Guyanese folklore, the history of slavery, identity and experiences of racism in Britain. Her first major collection, I Is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, followed by The Fat Black Woman’s Poems in 1984.
Jury chair Ruth Borthwick, chair of English PEN, called Nichols one of the most important poets of our time, saying she created a unique poetic language by blending Creole and standard English. Juror and poet Sarah Howe said her work combines the fluidity of oral tradition with the craft of written literature, and that her children’s writing is equally valuable.
Nichols said she was honoured and delighted, and thanked poetry, the jury and her parents, who valued books in their home.
