That I can’t write.
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LS
Lemn Sissay
b. 1967
Arts and letters
About
Born in Lancashire, Lemn Sissay, 56, grew up in care. In 1988, he published his first poetry collection, and he was official poet for the London 2012 Olympics. His 2019 autobiography, My Name is Why, became a bestseller and in 2021 he was awarded an OBE. He has just published Let the Light Pour In: Morning Poems, and his adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis with Frantic Assembly tours until 2 March 2024. He lives in London and Manchester.
10 answers
Believing in, even admiring, people who refuse to believe in me, and not believing people who do.
Also my most triumphant: 2017 at the Royal Court. Julie Hesmondhalgh reads my psychologist’s report over two hours. Every excruciating intimate word of it. Extreme verbatim theatre. One night only.
The Prince and Princess of Wales for not knowing when to leave their home.
When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”
I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.
I would build relationships. I would remember people’s significant moments. I would not fear closeness.
I made a suicide attempt at 12 or 13 years old.
In a photo album of just one family.
Life is not worth living if there is no one you would die for.
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