John is an internationally acclaimed poet, playwright, short story writer, and performer. In 2021, he was awarded the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement for his outstanding contribution to literature, and has previously been awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is studied on the National Curriculum in GSCE English.

He is being supported by Charlotte Ansell, whose book ‘Deluge’ was a 2019 Poetry Book Society Winter recommendation, and Jessica Mookherjee, whose book ‘Tigress’ was shortlisted as best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize in 2021.