Lemn Sissay

Sissay's mother, Yemarshet Sissay, arrived in Britain from Ethiopia in 1966.

Pregnant at the time, she was sent from Bracknell in Berkshire to a home for unwed mothers in Lancashire to give birth.

Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster.

Sissay was born in Billinge Hospital, Wigan, Lancashire, in 1967.

Norman Goldthorpe, a social worker assigned to his mother by Wigan Social Services, found foster parents for Sissay while his mother returned to Bracknell to finish her studies.

Goldthorpe named Sissay "Norman" and put him in the care of foster parents, telling them to treat the placement as an adoption.

The events are depicted in the play Something Dark and in the BBC documentary Internal Flight.

His strongly religious foster parents wanted to name him Mark after the Christian evangelist Mark and give him their surname, Greenwood.

When Sissay was 12 years old, his foster parents—who, by then, had three biological children of their own—placed him in a children's home and said that no one from their family would contact him again.

Between the ages of 12 and 17, Sissay was held in a total of four children's homes.

With no surrogate or birth family to turn to when he aged out of the care system, he was finally given his birth certificate, which revealed the name of his mother, Yemarshet Sissay, and his own legal name, Lemn Sissay.

He was also given a letter from his files, dated 1968, written by his mother to Norman Goldthorpe, pleading for her son's return.

She wrote: "How can I get Lemn back? I want him to be with his own people, his own colour. I don't want him to face discrimination."

From the point of leaving care, he began the search for his mother and took back his real name.

At the age of 17, Sissay used his unemployment benefit money to self-publish his first poetry pamphlet, Perceptions of the Pen, which he sold to striking miners in Lancashire.

When he was 18 years old, he moved from Atherton to the city of Manchester.

At 19, he was a literature development worker at Commonword, a community publishing cooperative in Manchester.

Sissay met his birth mother when he was 21, after a long search.

She was working for the United Nations in the Gambia.

His birth father, Giddey Estifanos, was a pilot for Ethiopian Airlines, who died in a plane crash in 1972.

Sissay released his first book of poetry in 1988 at the age of 21, and since the age of 24 he has been a full-time writer, performing internationally.

In 1995, he made the BBC documentary Internal Flight about his life.

His 2005 drama Something Dark deals with his search for his family, and was adapted for BBC Radio 3 in 2006, winning the UK Commission for Racial Equality's Race in the Media Award (RIMA).

In 2007, Sissay was appointed artist-in-residence at London's Southbank Centre.

He is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 4's programme Saturday Live, which in 2008 was nominated for two Sony Awards.

He also contributes to the BBC's Book Panel.

Sissay was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Huddersfield in 2009 and was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.

Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, was chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 until 2022, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows.

He was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has worked with the British Council and is a patron of the Letterbox Club, supporting children in care.

His work has featured at the Royal Academy and the British Film Institute.

In 2014 Sissay was appointed as a Fellow of the Foundling Museum.

Sissay's television appearances include The South Bank Show and the BBC's series Grumpy Old Men.

As a radio broadcaster he makes documentaries for the BBC.

In 2015, Sissay became the patron of ALL FM 96.9 Community Radio in Manchester, and he said: "I've always loved All Fm, partly because it's such diverse radio (with shows in Urdu, Polish, Somali, Persian, Cantonese and more), but also because it played 'Architecture' (Bertallot & Mo-Dus Remix), which I'd lost and the All Fm DJ sent me a copy."

Sissay's poems are read frequently on All Fm and one of its older presenters, Li, aged 84, translated and read his poem "Invisible Kisses" in Mandarin and English.

She said: "I love his poetry because it is so moving and not skin-deep."

In June 2015, Sissay was elected as chancellor of the University of Manchester for a seven-year term by university staff, registered alumni and members of the General Assembly.

He took up his new role on 1 August, with an installation ceremony held on Foundation Day at the university on 14 October 2015, at which he said: "Reach for the top of the tree and you may get to the first branch but reach for the stars and you'll get to the top of the tree. My primary aim is to inspire and be inspired. I am proud to be Chancellor of this fantastic university and extremely grateful to everyone who voted for me."

He was awarded the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize.

He has written a number of books and plays.