Poet Grace Nichols has been awarded the 2026 Royal Society of Literature Pioneer prize, a £10,000 honor recognizing women writers over 60 who have made significant breakthroughs in a previously less inclusive literary world. At 76, Nichols, originally from Guyana and a UK resident since 1977, is known for her impactful works, including I Is a Long-Memoried Woman, which won the Commonwealth poetry prize in 1983, and The Fat Black Woman’s Poems, published a year later. Her poetry has been included in GCSE curricula for decades and she has authored numerous works for both children and adults.
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The Pioneer prize was established in the previous year by Bernardine Evaristo, the then-president of the Royal Society of Literature, who used her £100,000 Women’s prize outstanding contribution award to fund it for ten years. The award, which rotates its focus each year, was given for poetry this time. Maureen Duffy, the inaugural Pioneer prize winner, passed away in May.
Nichols’ poetry often incorporates Guyanese folk tales, oral traditions, landscapes, and themes of slavery. She was part of a collective of West Indian poets who addressed racial issues amidst heated immigration discussions in Thatcher’s Britain. Her other works include Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), Sunris (1996)—which won the Guyana poetry prize—and Startling the Flying Fish (2005). Her contributions also include a novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986), and several children's books, like Come on Into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994), many of which she co-edited with her partner, John Agard.
Ruth Borthwick, chair of English PEN and head of the judging panel, praised Nichols as “one of our most important contemporary poets,” highlighting her unique poetic voice blending Creole and standard English. Borthwick remarked that Nichols has paved the way for future poets from the diaspora to connect Caribbean culture with Britain.
Panelist Sarah Howe called Nichols a