Lemn Sissay received his Doctor of Letters award at a graduation ceremony on Thursday
He was commissioned to write three poems for the 2012 Olympic Games, with all three carved into wood at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.As he accepted his award, at De Montfort Hall, he praised the university's graduates for their resilience during the coronavirus pandemic.
"You studied through the pandemic, one of the hardest times in living history, and you did it," he said."You are all incredible and it's an honour to be here with you, and thank you to the university - it's an honour to be part of Team Leicester."His mother was pregnant when she arrived in the UK from Ethiopia, and he stayed with a foster family until the age of 12 before spending the next five years in four different children's homes.
In 1988, aged 21, he released his first book of poetry, Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist, and has been a full-time writer since the age of 24, with works including Rebel Without Applause and Listener. His 2013 stage adaptation of British writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah's Refugee Boy is read in classrooms around the UK as a choice text on the national curriculum.
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