Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant emphatically voiced his opposition to the Israeli war on Gaza while accepting the prestigious British “T.S. Eliot Prize” at a ceremony held in London. As announced on the prize’s page on the “X” platform on Monday, “During his acceptance speech, Jason expressed his rejection of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, which has preoccupied him and many of us in recent months.”
Jason accepted the prize by reading from his book, and by speaking against the war in Gaza, which has preoccupied him and many of us over these last few months.
— T. S. Eliot Prize (@tseliotprize) January 15, 2024
Allen-Paisant’s stance at what is described as the UK’s biggest annual poetry event wasn’t the first time he’s shown solidarity with Palestine. He previously declared his support for the lawsuit brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding Israel’s “genocide” practices in Gaza.
On January 11th, he wrote on his “X” platform page that the “South African government is giving people so much hope and life now through their courage. History will look very favorably on them.”
The South African government is giving people so much hope and life now through their courage. History will look so favorably on them.
— Jason Allen-Paisant (@jallenpaisant) January 11, 2024
On the same day, Allen-Paisant retweeted a post by a Palestinian activist who identifies herself as “Voice of Gaza,” stating, “I have grown up twenty years… over the past 97 days! I have seen all the horrors of this world. If I had read in books about what is happening to us, I would not have believed it to be true.”
I have grown up twenty years.. over the past 97 days!
I have seen all the horrors of this world.
If I had read in books about what is happening to us, I would not have believed it to be true. @wizardbisan pic.twitter.com/PJaJBQhzF5— GaZa Voice (@GaZaVoice7th) January 11, 2024
On January 12th, he showed solidarity with an activist named Mark Hebden, who criticized “BBC News” for its bias towards Israel. Allen-Paisant reposted Hebden’s tweet, which read, “Just turned on BBC News, and they’re showing the Israeli defense at The Hague live. They didn’t show a single minute of the prosecution case live yesterday. You are one-sided, apartheid-supporting disgrace.”
Just turned on BBC News and they’re showing the Israeli defence at the Hague live. They didn’t show a single minute of the prosecution case live yesterday. You are a one sided, apartheid supporting disgrace @BBCNews
— Mark Hebden💙 (@unionlib) January 12, 2024
After the martyrdom of Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Dahdouh due to Israeli bombing, Allen-Paisant on January 7th articulated, “The slaughter of this man’s family by stages is just one face of the State of Israel’s barbaric violence against the Palestinian people. I can’t see how senior academics in the fields of ‘postcolonial’ and ‘decolonial’ can remain silent in the face of this.”
The slaughter of this man’s family by stages is just one face of the State of Israel’s barbaric violence against the Palestinian people. I can’t see how academics big on ‘postcolonial’ and ‘decolonial’ this and that can remain silent in the face of this. https://t.co/4b5mgCrsbD
— Jason Allen-Paisant (@jallenpaisant) January 7, 2024
Jason Allen-Paisant: The Jamaican Poet
Jason Allen-Paisant, the Jamaican poet, won this year’s British “T.S. Eliot Prize” for his second poetry collection “Self-Portrait as Othello,” which explores black masculinity and immigrant identity.
The winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 is Jason Allen-Paisant, for Self-Portrait as Othello! pic.twitter.com/goIv7JUTvP
— T. S. Eliot Prize (@tseliotprize) January 15, 2024
The 43-year-old author and academic was announced the £25,000 prize winner during a ceremony at The Wallace Collection in London. The jury consisting of poets Paul Muldoon, Sasha Dugdale, and Denise Saul, stated that “Self-Portrait as Othello” is a book of great ambition matched by a large imaginative capacity, vitality, and artistic taste.
The jury added, “As the title of the poetry collection suggests, the poetry is presented in a theatrical way with a range of voices and registers across geographies and eras. It requires real courage to accomplish a work like this with such style and integrity. We are confident that ‘Self-Portrait as Othello’ is a book to which readers will return for many years.”
In “Self-Portrait as Othello,” Allen-Paisant connects Shakespeare’s Othello – who is often treated as an outsider in Venice – to today’s black immigrant experiences. His poems traverse Jamaica, Prague, Paris, and Oxford, among other places, weaving lines in French, Jamaican vernacular, Italian, and German.
Allen-Paisant lives in Leeds with his wife and two children and teaches critical theory and creative writing at the University of Manchester. His first collection, “Thinking with Trees,” was published in 2021, and his book “Razing the Bush” is set to be released this year.
The judges received a total of 186 entries from publishers in Britain and Ireland. Among the other poets who made it to this year’s 10-poet shortlist were Kate Tempest for “Ink Cloud Reader” and Jane Clarke for “Shift in the Wind” as well as Sharon Olds for “Ballads.”
The “T.S. Eliot Prize” was established in 1993, and past winners include Ted Hughes, Don Paterson, and Carol Ann Duffy, with Anthony Joseph winning for his collection “Albert’s Sonatinas” in 2022.
“T.S. Eliot”: The Poet of “The Waste Land”
Thomas Stearns Eliot (T.S. Eliot) lived from 1888 to 1965 in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was an English poet, critic, and playwright of American origin. Eliot graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, then attended Harvard University, graduating in 1910 before moving to Paris to study French literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne.
He later returned to Harvard for graduate study in philosophy and psychology, then joined the University of Marburg in Germany on the eve of World War I, quickly transferring to Oxford University to study ancient Greek philosophy.
Eliot’s poems were few, a trait seemingly contradictory to his global reputation. He focused on quality, building his worldwide reputation on a handful of astonishing and unique poems, writing just two or three a year, each constituting a complete poetic world and a distinct literary system.
In 1915, his first poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” appeared in the American magazine “Poetry.” That same year, he married an English woman named Vivien Haigh-Wood. After a year in teaching, he moved to work at Lloyd’s Bank in London in 1917.
In 1927, he became an adherent of the Anglican Church and obtained British citizenship. In 1932, he became a poetry professor at Harvard University. After his wife’s death in 1947, he received the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1948).
Eliot published his first poetry collection “Prufrock and Other Observations” in 1917, reflecting influences of French Symbolism.
In 1922, Eliot published his poem “The Waste Land,” unanimously considered by critics as his greatest work and the poem that brought him global fame. Written during the collapse of Eliot’s marriage, it expresses the post-World War I generation’s spiritual breakdown and material devastation, depicting a nightmarish world filled with fear, loss, and death.
