Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, writer and illustrator based in south England. [1] She has written and curated eight volumes of poetry. Gill uses social media to engage her audience and she has over 780,000 followers on Instagram, one of the most popular poets on the platform. [2] [3]
Gill was born in Belfast to Indian parents who had been living in Ireland. She has Irish citizenship and Overseas Citizenship of India. Her father was in the merchant navy. The family moved to New Delhi when Gill was six, and she grew up and was educated there. [4] Gill studied design at university in New Delhi, and she completed a master's degree at the University for the Creative Arts. [3] She worked as a cleaner and a care-giver after her education. [5]
Gill's work was first published when she was 12 years old. [4] Gill has published eight volumes of poetry, including Your Soul Is A River (2016), Wild Embers: Poems of rebellion, fire and beauty (2017), Fierce Fairytales: & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul (2018), Great Goddesses: Life lessons from myths and monsters (2019), Your Heart Is The Sea (2019), The Girl and the Goddess (2020), Where Hope Comes From: Poems of Resilience, Healing, and Light (2021), and These Are the Words: fearless versefind your voice (2022). Her work offers reflections on love, and feminist re-tellings of fairy tales and Greek myths. [6] [4] She has been inspired by the works of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.
She wrote and performed her debut work for the stage, Maidens, Myths, and Monsters. [7] She is an ambassador for National Poetry Day. [4] Gill has appeared on the BBC, contributing to Woman's Hour on Radio Four, Free Thinking on Radio Three, and BBC Asian Network. [8] [9] [10] [11]
Gill is openly bisexual. [12]
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her suicide in 1963. The Collected Poems was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. For this collection Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982, making her the fourth to receive this honor posthumously.
Dame Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She was the first female poet, the first Scottish-born poet and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.
Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
Pamela Ayres MBE is a British poet, comedian, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes. Her 1975 appearance on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks led to appearances on other TV and radio shows, a one-woman touring stage show and performing before the Queen.
Moniza Alvi FRSL is a British-Pakistani writer and poet. She has won several well-known prizes for her verse. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
Mary Dorcey is an Irish author and poet, feminist, and LGBT+ activist. Her work is known for centring feminist and queer themes, specifically lesbian love and lesbian eroticism.
Suji Kwock Kim is a Korean-American-British poet-playwright.
Vicki Feaver is an English poet. She has published three poetry collections. Feaver's poem "Judith", from her book, Handless Maiden, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. The book was also the recipient of a Heinemann Prize and shortlisted for the Forward Prize. Feaver was also a recipient of a Cholmondeley Award.
Molly Fisk is an American poet and radio commentator. She has been teaching writing since 1994 and runs the on-line workshop Poetry Boot Camp. Her most recent book is Naming Your Teeth: Even More Observations from a Working Poet. She was honored as an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in 2019.
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry.
Emtithal "Emi" Mahmoud is a Sudanese-American poet and activist, who won the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam championship. In 2018, she became UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, and in this capacity, has traveled to refugee camps in Kenya, Greece and Jordan, drawing wider attention to the situation of refugees.
Yrsa Daley-Ward is an English writer, model and actor. She is known for her debut book, Bone, as well as for her spoken-word poetry, and for being an "Instagram poet". Her memoir, The Terrible, was published in 2018, and in 2019 it won the PEN/Ackerley Prize. She co-wrote Black Is King, Beyoncé's musical film and visual album, which also serves as a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift.
Safia Elhillo is a Sudanese-American poet known for her written and spoken poetry. Elhillo received a BA degree from the Gallatin School at New York University and an MFA in poetry from The New School. Elhillo has performed all around the world. She has won acclaim for her work and has been the recipient of several prestigious poetry awards. Elhillo has shared the stage with notable poets such as Sonia Sanchez and has taught at Split This Rock and Tin House Summer Workshop. Currently, she is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
Malika Booker is a British writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist, who is considered "a pioneer of the present spoken word movement" in the UK. Her writing spans different genres of storytelling, including poetry, theatre, monologue, installation and education, and her work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies. Organizations for which she has worked include Arts Council England, the BBC, British Council, Wellcome Trust, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Arvon, and Hampton Court Palace.
Amanda Lovelace is an American poet who rose to fame through her poetry posted to Tumblr and Instagram. Her works have feminist themes, often focusing on modern interpretations of traditional tales. She is the author of the women are some kind of magic series, including the Goodreads Choice Award-winning the princess saves herself in this one and women are some kind of magic.
Aranya Johar is an Indian poet. She uses social media to address issues like gender equality, mental health and body positivity. She uses slam poetry to confront beauty standards. Aranya's first released piece, “A Brown Girls’s Guide to Gender” became a viral sensation and hit 1 million views within two days of its upload. She integrated spoken word in Bollywood for the first time through her collaboration with Akshay Kumar for the movie ‘Padman’. Aranya was a speaker at TEDxICTMumbai in April 2017. She has been invited and praised by various poets and foundations.
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a British spoken word poet, writer and speaker, known for her poem "This Is Not a Humanising Poem" and writing about life as a Muslim woman in England on her site, The Brown Hijabi.
Najwa Zebian is a Lebanese–Canadian activist, author, poet, educator, and speaker based in London, Ontario. Zebian gained widespread attention on Instagram through sharing her instapoetry and popularity during the #MeToo movement via her TEDx talks and interviews on Canadian news outlets such as CBC, and Entertainment Tonight, among others.
Kate Baer is an American writer who currently lives in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Her writing describes a range of topics, including motherhood, love, and loss.
Ruby Dhal is a British-Afghan poet, entrepreneur and author based in London. Born in India, Dhal emigrated to the UK at a young age with her family. She started a writing page on Instagram in 2016, eventually becoming a popular "instapoet". She has written 5 books, including 3 best-selling books.