Richard Georges (born 1982) is the first poet laureate of the British Virgin Islands. He is the current president of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and a founding editor of MOKO: Caribbean Arts & Letters. Born in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

, Trinidad, Georges was raised and currently resides in the British Virgin Islands.

Education

Georges earned a B.A. (English) from the Texas Christian University, an M.A. (Creative Writing) from

Aberystwyth University , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

, and a Ph.D. (Creative and Critical Writing) from University of Sussex, where he published his thesis "Charting the sea in Caribbean poetry: Kamau Brathwaite, Derek Walcott, Dionne Brand, Alphaeus Norman, Verna Penn Moll, and Richard Georges." Georges says that while studying for his B.A. degree, he found himself "falling in love with images and rhyme and would find parallels between writers like Walcott and Eliot with lyrical rappers like Nas and

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

Writing

Georges' poetry is enveloped in the textured sensuality of the sea while also addressing the violent history of the Caribbean and recent events such as Hurricane Irma and the climate crisis. Richard Georges' writing has appeared in '' Smartish Pace'', '' sx salon'', ''

The Poetry Review ''Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Emily Berry. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Maurice ...

'', '' Wasafiri'', '' Entropy'', The Scottish Poetry Library website, and elsewhere. In 2020, Georges won the poetry category and the overall OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature with his third collection, ''Epiphaneia''. In 2018, Georges' second collection, ''Giant'' (Platypus Press) was Highly Commended by the Forward Prizes and longlisted for the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. That same year, Georges presented the talk "The power of poetry" for TEDx Tortola. ''Make Us All Islands'', Georges' first book of poetry (Shearsman Books, 2017) was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection by the Forward Prizes for Poetry.

Selected works

* ''Make Us All Islands'', poetry (2017), * ''Giant'', poetry (2018), * ''Epiphaneia'', poetry (2019),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georges, Richard 1982 births Alumni of Aberystwyth University British Virgin Islands people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Living people People from Port of Spain Poets laureate Texas Christian University alumni University of Sussex