The English Department at the University of Southampton is excited to announce Malika Booker will be giving the 10th annual F.T. Prince Memorial Lecture at part of the city’s Black History Month events. The free event, titled ‘The Little Miracles’, is organised in partnership with Winchester Poetry Festival, will take place at 6pm on Tuesday 18th October at the University of Southampton’s Avenue Campus.

These lectures are given every year in honour of the poet and scholar F. T. Prince, who was one of Southampton’s first English professors. Invited speakers explore new directions in literary studies, drawing on the English department’s wide range of intellectual interests. Previous speakers have included the poets Daljit Nagra, TJ Dema, and Kei Miller.

Malika Booker has written poems, plays, and monologues, and her work has been included widely in anthologies, from Penguin Modern Poets to the school curriculum. She won the Cholmondeley Award in 2019 for her outstanding contribution to poetry, and the 2020 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. She is the co-founder of the influential poetry collective, Malika’s Kitchen, which celebrated two decades with the recent anthology Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different (2021). She was made fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.

This special event is a chance to hear one of the most important voices in UK poetry, and a pioneer of the spoken word movement. Malika will read from her work and discuss the histories, writers, and traditions that have shaped her writing.

Will May, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Southampton, said, ‘Malika Booker’s work as a poet, mentor, and maker has had a profound impact on contemporary writing today, and we are so excited she is coming to speak.’ Professor May recently interviewed Malika Booker as part of the AHRC-funded Invisible Mentors project, which explored the hidden role of mentoring in shaping modern literature.

This free event will be part of the University of Southampton’s programme for Black History Month, and also follows the Winchester Poetry Day on 8th October.