Keith Jarrett is a writer and educator of Jamaican heritage. His debut poetry collection, Selah (2017), was published by Burning Eye Books. Also in 2017, his play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic, London, and aired on BBC Four. An international slam champion, he has appeared on Benjamin Zephaniah’s BAFTA-winning show, Life & Rhymes, and his poetry has been projected onto the façade of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 2019, he was selected for the International Literary Showcase as an outstanding LGBT writer. He is a Lambda Literary Fiction and an Obsidian Poetry Fellow, and holds a PhD from Birkbeck University, where he was awarded the Bloomsbury Studentship. His second collection, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied (Bad Betty, 2026), is shortlisted for both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He teaches at NYU in London. Author photo © Adrian Pope
Shortlisted Works
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