When it comes to the diverse range of people championing poetry in the UK, we seemingly have a lot to celebrate this National Poetry Day. Although the well-known poets of old are typically white men of the middle or upper classes, the most famous poets in the UK today are often women, people of colour, or both. Carol Ann Duffy is poet laureate; mixed-race Glaswegian Jackie Kay is the current makar for Scotland. I work in schools, getting young people to write poems themselves, and the number one poet whom children of all backgrounds tell me they have read or listened to is Benjamin Zephaniah– a writer whose work explicitly deals with issues of race, class and heritage.
Related: Poetic justice: the rise of brilliant women writing in dark times | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Related: Finding minority writers isn't 'racial nepotism'. It's the cure for bigotry | Anjali Enjeti
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