The Leicester Poetry Committee is delighted to announce
Leicester's Inaugural Poet Laureate

Mr. Shay

Leicester's First Poet Laureate

“The title ‘Poet Laureate’ was not one I had encountered or aspired to while growing up in Belgrave,” Mr. Shay said. “My ambition is to raise aspirations for young people across our city and to demonstrate that such positions are open to them. I particularly want to challenge perceptions within diaspora communities that creative writing is not a valid career path. Poetry is inclusive and multifaceted – whether written on the page, performed as rap or spoken word, expressed through storytelling, or delivered in mother tongue. It belongs to all of us.”