My Name Is Why

Sissay, Lemn

Biographies & Memoirs

Bolinda/Canongate audio

Memoirs

Bolinda Audio

How does a government steal a child and then imprison him? How does it keep it a secret? This story is how.At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph.Sissay reflects on his childhood, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation's best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely memoir is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

Six years after his last solo publication, Lemn Sissay brings together the experiences of those intervening years in a stunning new collection, Morning Breaks in the Elevator. In Sissay's work, we witness declamation being honed and brought to fine art, establishing his reputation as one of the UK's foremost poets as he ably moves from loud protest through to quiet reflection.

Morning Breaks In The Elevator

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

CANONGATE BOOKS *

Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist

Valerie Bloom

Bogle L'Ouverture Press

Lemn Sissay was seventeen when he wrote his first poetry book, which he hand-sold to the miners and millworkers of Wigan. Since then his poems have become landmarks, sculpted in granite and built from concrete, recorded on era-defining albums and declaimed in over thirty countries. 
He has performed to thousands of football fans at the FA Cup Final, to hundreds of thousands as the poet of the 2012 Olympics, and to millions across our TV screens and the airwaves of BBC Radio. He has become one of the nation's best-loved voices.

Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems (Canons)

Lemn Sissay was seventeen when he wrote his first poetry book, which he hand-sold to the miners and millworkers of Wigan. Since then his poems have become landmarks, sculpted in granite and built from concrete, recorded on era-defining albums and declaimed in over thirty countries. 
 He has performed to thousands of football fans at the FA Cup Final, to hundreds of thousands as the poet of the London Olympics, and to millions across our TV screens and the airwaves of BBC Radio. He has become one of the nation's best-loved voices.

Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems (Canons, 70)

Canongate Canons

Something Dark tells the true story of Lemn Sissay who as a baby was given up by his Ethiopian mother in the 1960s. He was renamed Norman Greenwood and nicknamed Chalky White throughout his turbulent childhood in care, only to find out his real name at the age of 18. No longer the possession of the social services, he left the brutal suburbs of Lancashire for the bright lights of Manchester where he became a celebrated performance poet. Aged 21 Lemn left for Gambia in search of his mother and the truth about his father.

Something Dark (Oberon Modern Plays)

Dramas & Plays

Oberon Books

At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. This is Lemn's story; a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. Sissay reflects on a childhood in care, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation's best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely memoir is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

Essays & Correspondence

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sissay, Lemn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sissay, Lemn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sissay, Lemn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

My Name Is Why

My Name Is Why

My Name Is Why

My Name Is Why

Morning Breaks In The Elevator

Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist

Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems (Canons)

Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems (Canons, 70)

Something Dark (Oberon Modern Plays)

My Name Is Why