On my radar: Nick Laird's cultural highlights

The poet and novelist on politics, pugs and reading plays over Zoom

Born in 1975 in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, poet and novelist Nick Laird attended the University of Cambridge before working in law for six years. In 2005, he published his first collection of poems, To a Fault, and his first novel, Utterly Monkey. Since then, he has won numerous awards for his writing, including the Somerset Maugham award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial prize and the Eric Gregory award. He lives in London with his wife, Zadie Smith, and their two children. Laird and Smith’s children’s book debut, Weirdo(Puffin, £12.99), illustrated by Magenta Fox, is published on 15 April.