James Berry

Career in Great Britain Settling in 1948 in Great Britain, Berry attended night school, trained and worked as a telegrapher in London, while also writing. He was reported as saying: "I knew I was right for London and London was right for me. London had books and accessible libraries." He later moved to live in Brighton for a period in the late 1970s to the late 1990s.

He became an early member of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM), founded in 1966 by Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Andrew Salkey and John La Rose, and in 1971 was its acting chair. – which would become "one of the most anthologised Caribbean poems", as Alastair Niven has noted. It was also included in The New York Times list of children's books that "let young minds wonder and wander on their own".

Berry's last book of poetry, A Story I Am In: Selected Poems (2011), draws on five earlier collections: Fractured Circles (1979), Lucy’s Letters and Loving (1982, Chain of Days (1985), Hot Earth Cold Earth (1995) and Windrush Songs (2007). In 1995, his "Song of a Blue Foot Man" was adapted and staged at the Watford Palace Theatre.

In 1990, Berry was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to poetry. In September 2004, he was one of 50 Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature to be featured in the historic "A Great Day in London" photograph at the British Library.

In 2007, he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Berry's archives were acquired by the British Library in October 2012. Among other items, the archive contains drafts of an unpublished novel, The Domain of Sollo and Sport. He was survived by his son Roger, his daughter Joanna having predeceased him. Mary Berry, who had been his wife, died in 2002.

Selected publications Bluefoot Traveller: An Anthology of Westindian Poets in Britain (editor), London: Limestone Publications, 1976; revised edition Bluefoot Traveller: Poetry by West Indians in Britain, London: Harrap, 1981 Fractured Circles (poetry), London: New Beacon Books, 1979 Lucy's Letters and Loving, London: New Beacon Books, (1982) News for Babylon: The Chatto Book of Westindian-British Poetry (editor), London: Chatto & Windus, 1984 Chain of Days, Oxford University Press, 1985 A Thief in the Village and other stories (for children), London: Hamish Hamilton, 1987 The Girls and Yanga Marshall: four stories (for children), London: Longman, 1987 Anancy-Spiderman: 20 Caribbean Folk Tales (for children), illustrated by Joseph Olubo, London: Walker Books, 1988 When I Dance (for children), Hamish Hamilton, 1988 Brighton Festival Poem 1989: Meeting in a Sense of Freedom with Other Poems (1989) Isn't My Name Magical? (for children), Longman/BBC, 1990 The Future-Telling Lady and other stories (for children), London: Hamish Hamilton, 1991 Ajeemah and his Son (for children), USA: HarperCollins, 1992 Celebration Song (for children), London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994 Classic Poems to Read Aloud (editor), London: Kingfisher Books, 1995 Hot Earth Cold Earth, Bloodaxe Books, 1995 Playing a Dazzler (for children), London: Hamish Hamilton, 1996 Don't Leave an Elephant to Go and Chase a Bird (for children), USA: Simon & Schuster, 1996 Everywhere Faces Everywhere (for children), Simon and Schuster, 1997 First Palm Trees (for children), illustrated by Greg Couch, Simon & Schuster, 1997 Around the World in 80 Poems (editor – for children), London: Macmillan, 2001 A Nest Full of Stars (for children), London: Macmillan, 2002 Only One of Me (selected poems – for children), London: Macmillan, 2004 James Berry Reading from his poems for children, CD, The Poetry Archive, 2005 Windrush Songs, Bloodaxe Books, 2007 A Story I Am In: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books, 2011 A Story About Afiya, illustrated by Anna Cunha, Lantana, 2020

Awards 1977–78, C. Day-Lewis Fellowship 1981, National Poetry Competition (for "Fantasy of an African Boy") 1987, Smarties Prize (for A Thief in the Village) 1989, Signal Poetry Award (for When I Dance) 1989, Coretta Scott King Book Award 1991, Cholmondeley Award 1993, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (for Ajeemah and His Son) 2007, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Legacy The 'James Berry Poetry Prize – "the UK's first poetry prize offering both expert mentoring and book publication for young or emerging poets of colour" – was launched in April 2021, organised by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA) together with Bloodaxe Books, and supported by funding from Arts Council England.