John Agard wins record third CLiPPA

John Agard has won the CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Children’s Poetry Award) for an unprecedented third time with The Poetry World of John Agard, illustrated by Shirley Hottier (Otter-Barry Books).

The award was announced by Children’s Laureate Wales Nicola Davies at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre in London. John previously won the prize with his wife Grace Nichols in 2003 for Under the Moon and Over the Sea (Walker Books) and again in 2009 with The Young Inferno (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books), illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura. He was also on the shortlist in 2025 with Wise Up! Wise Down! (Walker Books), with fellow poet Jon-Arno Lawson and Kitamura again.

The Poetry World of John Agard features 80 poems taken from John’s early collections, including I Din Do Nuttin’, Laughter Is an Egg and We Animals Would Like a Word with You with new illustrations by Hottier. 

Davies, chair of this years judges said 'His poems gleam with human warmth and sunshine, but like all bright lights they cast important shadows, and illuminate things we have not noticed before. You can carry John’s words in your head and your heart and warm your soul on them forever.'