Olympic Games poet honoured with University of Leicester award

Lemn Sissay said he was honoured by the award

The official poet for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been recognised with a university award.

Lemn Sissay received his Doctor of Letters award at a University of Leicester graduation ceremony on Thursday.

He said: "It's an honour to be part of Team Leicester."

He has previously been appointed MBE for services to literature by the Queen in 2014 and OBE for services to literature and charity in 2021.

Mr Sissay is a poet, playwright, memoirist, performer and broadcaster.

'You did it'

He was commissioned to write three poems for the 2012 Olympic Games, with all three carved into wood at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

The poems are still there, as part of the Games' legacy.

As he accepted his award, at De Montfort Hall, he praised the university's graduates for their resilience during the coronavirus pandemic.

"You studied through the pandemic, one of the hardest times in living history, and you did it," he said.

"All I had to do [to get this award] was nothing.

"You are all incredible and it's an honour to be here with you, and thank you to the university - it's an honour to be part of Team Leicester."

Mr Sissay was born in Lancashire in the 1960s.

His mother was pregnant when she arrived in the UK from Ethiopia, and he stayed with a foster family until the age of 12 before spending the next five years in four different children's homes.

This difficult start to life inspired many of his future works.

In 2018, he brought and won a legal case against the government for treatment he suffered while in care.

In 1988, aged 21, he released his first book of poetry, Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist, and has been a full-time writer since the age of 24, with works including Rebel Without Applause and Listener.

His 2013 stage adaptation of British writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah's Refugee Boy is read in classrooms around the UK as a choice text on the national curriculum.