Ethiopia Boy

CHRIS BECKETT was born in London, but spent an important part of his childhood in Ethiopia, before going on to take a degree in modern languages at Oxford. His poems have been widely published in magazines, and he won first prize in the Poetry London competition in 2001 and second prize in the Chroma writing competition in 2006. His first collection, The Dog Who Thinks He’s a Fish (Smith/Doorstop Books, 2004), was described by Moniza Alvi as ‘a rare delight’. He has translated poems by the young Ethiopian writer Bewketu Seyoum (Modern Poetry in Translation, 2008 and 2012; and In Search of Fat, Flipped Eye, 2012) and by the great French Martinican poet, Aimé Césaire.